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THE LIFE 



OF 



St.Augustine 

BISHOP, CONFESSOR AND DOCTOR 



OF 



THE CHURCH. 



-. 



By P. E. MORIARTY, D. D. 

Ex- Assistant General O. S. A. 






Fecisti not ad Te t et inquietum est cor nostrum, donee requiescat in Te — 

Aug. Confess, i. x. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PETER F. CUNNINGHAM, PUBLISHER, 2l6 SOUTH THIRD STREET. 

1873. 



*3H 




PERMISSU SUPERIORUM. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

PETER F. CUNNINGHAM, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 




©To AUGUSTDK1E AF3E) SToR»M0(D& 



"Son„I7im?e iw fkr&ier delight in, tfu,$ tire-. tf?i& iftirtg I d&n / \ ; 1 1 • 




CONTENTS. 



Peefaoe .' Page 7 

CHAPTER I. 

Saint Augustine's Birth— Parentage— Advantage arising from 
the Christian Care of his Saintly Mother, Monica— Alarming 
Appearance of Evil Dispositions — Revelation of Genius — Com- 
bat of Religious and Worldly Impressions 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Commencement of St. Augustine's Education — Brilliant Talents — 
Moral and Intellectual Aberrations — Painful Unrest in the 
Conflict of Vice and Virtue — Ardent Zeal of Monica for the 
Welfare of Her Son 32 



CHAPTER III. 

Augustine at Carthage — Enters the University — Triumph of 
Genius — Failure of Religion — Evil Temptations in a Depraved 
City — Startling Crisis of the Passions — Fatal Consequences of 
Bad Company — Faith Wavers in the Shock of Morals — Indom- 
itable Pursuit of Learning Amidst the Disturbances of an 
Uneasy Conscience 39 

3 



4 Contents. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Augustine Falls into Materialism and Manicheism — Surprising 
Overshadowing of a Noble Soul — Intense Grief of St. Monica 
— Relieved by a Heavenly Vision and Inspired Prediction — ■ 
Augustine Embraces the Profession of Rhetor — Grand Success 
— Providentially Marred by Adversity — Wholesome Wailing 
of a Distressed Spirit — The Brilliant Intellect becomes Dis- 
appointed and Disgusted with the Conceited Absurdity of 
Heresy 54 

CHAPTER V. 

Augustine Proceeds to Rome — His Departure a Melancholy Scene, 
Most Saddening to the Tender Heart of St. Monica — Magnifi- 
cent Display of Maternal Piety — Condition of Rome — Augus- 
tine's Scepticism — Honored and Applauded, He is Promoted to 
a Distinguished Office in the Imperial City of Milan 78 

CHAPTER VI. 

Arrival at Milan — St. Ambrose's Character Destined to Restore 
the Wanderer to the Home of Religion — The Church at that 
Period — Augustine is Favorably Impressed by St. Ambrose — 
Advance and Hesitation on the Way of Truth — St. Monica's 
Arrival — Rejoices at the Good Prospect of the Fruit of Her 
Tears and Prayers — Augustine's Study of Plato and St. Paul- 
Improved Reading of Sacred Scriptures — Combat between 
Nature and Grace , 92 

CHAPTER VII. 

Augustine's Struggles — Visitations of Grace — Conversion — Affect- 
ing Narrative 119 






Contents. 5 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Preparation for Baptism — Literary Activity — Christianity makes 

Augustine Superior to Plato — His Baptism — The Grandeur and 

Beauty of the New Life — Homeward Journey to Africa— St. 

Monica's Death — Charming and Edifying Scenes 141 

CHAPTER IX. 
St. Augustine's Affections and Sentiments at His Mother's Death 
— Arrives at Home — Monastic Life at Tagestum — Ordained 
Priest — Marvellous Success of His Ministry 156 

CHAPTER X. 
St. Augustine Consecrated Bishop — Public and Private Life — 
Administration of His Episcopal Office — His Excellence in 
Charity 170 

CHAPTER XI. 
Magnificence and Universality of the Labors of St. Augustine — 
He Appears Unequalled as Apostle, Light of Doctors, and 
Defender of the Faith 187 

CHAPTER XII. 
Combats and Triumphs of the Great Doctor in the Cause of 
Religion — Immense Advantages Gained by His Conferences 
with Infidels — Immortalized as the Champion of Grace 207 

CHAPTER XIII. 
St. Augustine Crushes every Error ; Sustains every Truth ; and 
by His Piety and Learning Adorns and Illumines the whole 
Structure of Religion 219 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Last Years of St. Augustine's Life — Vandal Devastation in 
His Church and Country — He Displays the Wisdom and Cour- 
age of the Christian Hero 231 



6 Contents, 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Closing Scene Harmonizes with the Grandeur and Beauty 
of St. Augustine's Life — His Death Precious in the Sight of 
the Lord 241 

CHAPTER XVI. 
St. Augustine's Writings 254 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Synopsis of St. Augustine's Works 259 

The Monastic Foundations and Religious Rules of St. 
Augustine 326 

Summary of the Rules of the Holy Father St. Augus- 
tine 330 

A Prayer of St. Augustine 361 




PREFACE 



T. AUGUSTINE, Bishop of Hippo, is 
universally esteemed as one of the most 
eminent of those "just men whose mem- 
ory shall be held in eternal benediction." The 
remarkable vicissitudes of his life, the sur- 
prising developments of character, and the 
wonderful transitions which finally moulded 
him into a noble member of the Christian 
body, present a charming subject of intel- 
lectual entertainment and cordial edification. 
His eulogists have not hesitated to apply to 
him the motto of sacred Scripture : " Like 
the sun he shone in his days ;" and truly this 
was the case. The dawning of childhood 
ominated a fervent aspiration for piety and 
truth ; then the ascendant and expanding 
glow of adolescence was overcast with cloudy 

7 



8 Preface. 

aberrations, hiding the latent flame of divine 
love ; at length, in the fervid noon of matur- 
ity, the light of justice beamed into a bril- 
liancy that blended the irradiation of time with 
immortal glory. This meets our view when 
we read the history of St. Augustine, and 
makes his biography immeasurably interest- 
ing to every thoughtful Christian. The seed 
— the Holy Name Jesus— though implanted 
only by the mortal breath of maternal cul- 
ture, did not decay in the soul of Augustine; 
fertilized by " water and the Spirit," it grew 
into sacred vigor, and bloomed forever with 
the fruits of divine grace. Most truly he 
said, "Thou, O Lord, hast created us for 
Thee, and our heart is restless until it rests 
in Thee." When we unfold the details of 
his life we behold the effects of that " rest." 
That which his genius and piety produced 
in scientific disquisition, in pastoral instruc- 
tion for the support of virtue and the correc- 
tion of vice, and in luminous dissolution of 
error, we know by the vital energy he has 
transmitted through the life of the Church, 
which has survived with unimpaired vigor the 



Preface. g 

demise of so many generations. The sub- 
stance of his sermons is now preached in the 
languages of every Christian people ; the 
canonical regulations of religion are still 
framed according to his wise provisions for 
ecclesiastical polity, and the audacious specu- 
lations of infidelity are daily overawed by 
the truthful prowess wherewith he prostrated 
the numerous hosts of unbelievers who trou- 
bled the household of faith in ages long 
past. The remorse of the convicted penitent 
is assuaged by the sweetness of holy contri- 
tion through his " Confessions," and to those 
who seek union with the Lord in the enter- 
tainment of heavenly prospects, his medita- 
tions open out vistas through which the orb 
of heavenly light is seen, and his soliloquies 
transfuse an unction of heavenly comfort 
through all the sensibilities of the soul. The 
most fertile in genius, the most toilsome in 
learned labor, have been astonished at the 
sight of the numerous folios into which the 
pen of St. Augustine crowded disquisitions 
in every department of science and literature. 
Wherever we look throughout the domain 



i o Preface. 

of the Church, we cannot fail to perceive 
vestiges of his apostolic labors. He has 
inscribed his fame in the numerous charitable 
and religious foundations which owe their 
existence to his model for the regular obser- 
vance of Christian life. Innumerable are the 
churches, fanes of learning, and palaces of 
the poor, which arise under the auspices of 
St. Augustine, and are seen in every circle 
of civilization, monuments of his sanctity. 

We offer the biography of this favorite of 
heaven and friend of man, as an humble 
contribution to the reverence which the Lord 
has ordained for His faithful servants, and 
an aid to the performance of the pious duty 
of praising God in His saints. 

May the efficacy of the Holy Name 
whereof we are reminded by the pious senti- 
ments of St. Augustine be diffused through 
the souls of all our readers ; and may love 
and adoration of Jesus increase now and for 
ever. 



P7-eface. 1 1 



THRENODY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

Thou, Lord, hast created us for Thee, and our heart is restless, 
until it rests in Thee ! — St. Augustine Confess. 

My heart ran wide o'er sea and earth, 
I longed for rest and quiet peace, 

I gave the reins to boundless thought; 

I searched for it in noisy mirth, 
I looked for rest in sensual ease, 

I sought for it and found it not. 

Soon as the airy phantom rose, 
It melted from my gaze away; 

It left me sad and troubled more: 

Unseemly joy gave place to woes, 
My sunshine grew a misty ray, 

My brightest hopes were clouded o'er. 

The deeper that I clung to earth, 
The more I felt disquiet reign, 

More gloom girt round my choicest glee: 

For I the while was nursing dearth, 
And hugging fast my iron chain, 

Away, my God, from peace and Thee. 



1 2 Preface. 

The more I fled from Thee, my all, 
More sunk the iron in my breast; 

Thou wert my peace, and still I fled, 

Deaf to the music of thy call, 

Senseless to thine appeals of rest, 

In seeming life as I were dead. 

Still thou didst press me, and didst give 
A penance to upbraid and chafe, 

Till I should melt before thy grace, 

Till I should turn to Thee and live, 
And find in Thee a harbor safe, 

A refuge sure, and resting-place. 

These didst thou give, my heart increase 
Of will and power, of love and light; 

That like a mighty river flows, 

Then did my heart recover peace ; 
And turning from a world's despite, 

In Thee, my God, found calm repose. 

P. E. M. 




LIFE OF ST. AUGUSTINE, B. CD. 



CHAPTER I. 

Saint Augustine's Birth — Parentage — Advantage arising 
from the Christian care of his Saintly Mother, Monica 
— Alarming Appearance of Evil Dispositions — Reve- 
lation of Genius — Combat of Religious and Worldly 
Impressions. 

' T. AUGUSTINE holds eminent and glo- 
rious distinction amongst those who live 
in the blessed memory of the Church. 
Although fourteen hundred years have elapsed 
since his mortal covering was laid in the 
darkness and silence of the grave, his name, 
his virtues, and the fruits of his sacred labors 
flourish with undiminished splendor. The 
edifying influences of his example, and the 
instructive illumination of his wisdom are 
coextensive with the expansion of the Chris- 

13 



1 4 Life of St. Augustine. 

tian fold. From year to year, from genera- 
tion to generation, his eulogy is proclaimed 
throughout the universe of faith, in the words 
of his friend Possidius, who said : " He was 
like unto the angels in fervor, like unto the 
prophets in the knowledge of mysteries, like 
unto the apostles in the preaching of the 
gospel." What motive may we expect to 
find in the contemplation of his life, for those 
elevated sentiments and noble utterances ? 
Will our thoughts be directed no farther than 
the man, tenant of this wilderness of human 
life ; one naturally fashioned unto honor out 
of the same family clay, exposed to the sad 
vicissitudes of sin and sickness, and receiv- 
ing the only final and summary tribute 
to all the merit and toil of mortal gran- 
deur, in the pithy and compassionate reward : 
" De mo7 r tuis nihil nisi bonum!' No : Divine 
Grace vanquished rebellious nature. That 
is the history of the Saint. Looking at Au- 
gustine, we are impelled to ask, what is the 
great heart, lofty genius, and all human 
eminence, without the grace of God ? In the 
character of Augustine, we can, very pro- 



Life of St. Augustine. 1 5 

perly, group together the highest qualities 
of an excellent disposition ; magnanimity, 
grandeur of thought, and sublimity of genius ; 
all that forms the hero, and elevates the 
admiration of mankind to the loftiest emi- 
nence, yet all would terminate in a dismal 
phantom, without the crown of heavenly 
grace. We could not feel else than pity 
and regret, if we had nothing more to inspect 
than the comprehensive genius which quali- 
fied Augustine to be an instructor to his 
masters in the days of his pupilage ; or the 
fascination of manners which endeared him 
to all his associates. In that case we would 
find him, as he humbly expressed it, in all 
his thoughts and actions, " as man, like man 
himself, naught but vanity and sin." But 
the name of Augustine is illustrious, the 
Church preserves his memorial in benedic- 
tion, and the household of faith is informed 
and edified through him, because through 
the grace of God, he who once flickered 
within the shadows of sin and death with a 
meteoric glowing of earthly vanity and plea- 
sure, became distinguished as most saintly 



1 6 Life of St. Augustine. 

amongst the learned, and amongst saints the 
most learned. Hence he was privileged to 
exclaim in the words of St Paul : " By the 
grace of God I am what I am, and His grace 
in me hath not been void. I have labored 
more abundantly, yet not I, but the grace of 
God with me." 

Tagestum, an obscure town of Numidia, on 
the northern shore of Africa, obtained an 
everlasting name in history by the birth, on 
the 13th of November, 353, of Aurelius 
Augustinus, Saint, Confessor, and Doctor. 
He was peculiarly fated by having a heathen 
father, and his mother a saint; hence the 
various and opposite influences affecting the 
aspects of his life. Patricius, the father, was 
a man of the world, vain, sensual, and remark- 
ably irritable. He had not learned the sim- 
ple truth which transcends all secular science 
and philosophy, viz: "What doth it profit a 
man to gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul." The ignorance or oblivion of 
that principle, mainly cause the degeneracy 
of individuals and of nations, and such was 
the case for a time through the parental 



Life of St. Augustine. ly 

interference of Patricius. His sole desire 
and design was to make his son a fondling 
of the world, wealthy and honored, receiving 
and bestowing homage among men, serenely 
indifferent about eternity, and untrammelled 
by any allegiance to heaven. Readily and 
quickly Augustine coincided with those pater- 
nal yearnings ; he had all the qualities to 
insure success for his father's purpose. After 
long years of experience he described with 
the fervid feeling of a wounded heart the 
consquences of that sad success. 

In the marvellous book of his "Confes- 
sions," the lamentation of Augustine for the 
deficiency of religious guidance in his early 
education, must convince us that more hap- 
piness arises to the individual and to society 
from Christian disposition than from great 
parts and brilliant accomplishments. When 
they are all united in the same person, they 
greatly enhance each other's value; but if 
they are separated, it is certain that good- 
ness of heart, rectitude of intention, meek- 
ness, innocence and simplicity, are infinitely 
more desirable than wit, eloquence, and erudi- 



1 8 Life of St. Augustine. 

tion. Those who are nourished with the 
divine word will seldom fall into fatal or 
irretrievable mistakes by the defects of their 
understandings, or of their acquired know- 
ledge. It is the obliquity of the heart which 
causes the most Irequent and most destruc- 
tive instances of immorality and irreligion. 
"It is a people that do err in their heart/' 
says the sacred text — "and they have ndt 
known my ways ;" a plain intimation, that 
an ignorance of the ways of God, of truth 
and virtue, is productive of restless misery, 
making the heart like a troubled sea. It 
foams, it is violently agitated with every blast, 
it is dashed against the rocks, it casteth up 
mire and dirt. Fortunately, the mother of 
Augustine was a pious and a virtuous Chris- 
tian, who instructed him in the faith of Jesus 
Christ, and thus elevated herself the future 
Saint Monica, to rank among the most noble 
and holy women who adorn the temple of 
religion, and prepared the richest gem in 
the triumphal crown of the Church, which is 
the Spouse of Jesus Christ. Speaking of 
his tenderest years, Augustine says: "I then 



Life of St. Augustine. 19 

already believed, and my mother and the 
whole household, except my father ; yet did 
not he prevail over the power of my mother's 
piety in me, that as he did not yet believe, 
so neither should I. The dearest wish of 
Monica's heart was to see her much beloved 
son secure in the bosom of the Church. Her 
very life was breathed in prayer for this end, 
and the strongest human influence Augustine 
experienced was the religion of his devoted 
mother. 

What a public blessing, what an instru- 
ment of the most exalted good is a virtuous 
Christian mother ! Very justly St. Paul re- 
minded his disciple Timothy, of the faith of his 
grandmother Lois, and the devotion of his 
mother, Eunice. How many in every clime 
and generation owe to it all the virtue and 
piety that adorns them ; or recollect at this 
moment some saint in heaven that brought 
them into light, to labor for their happiness, 
temporal and eternal ! No one can be ignor- 
ant of the irresistible influence which such 
a mother possesses in forming the hearts of 
her children at a season when nature takes 



20 Life of St. Augustine. 

in lesson and example at every pore. Con- 
fined by duty and inclination within the wails 
of her own house, every hour of her life 
becomes an hour of instruction, every feature 
of her conduct a transplanted virtue. We 
may behold her encircled by her beloved 
charge, like a being more than human, to 
which every mind is bent, and every eye 
directed ; the eager simplicity of infancy in- 
haling from her lips the sacred truths of 
religion, in adapted phrase and familiar story; 
the whole rule of their moral and religious 
duties simplified for easier infusion. The 
countenance of this fond and anxious parent 
all beaming with delight and love, and her 
eye raised occasionally to heaven in fervent 
supplication for a blessing on her work, — O 
what a glorious part does such a woman act 
on the great theatre of humanity, and how 
much is the mortal to be pitied, who is not 
struck with the image of such excellence ! 
When we look to its consequences direct 
and remote, as in the instance of Monica, we 
see the plants she has raised and cultivated 
spreading through the community with the 



Life of St. Augustine. 21 

richest increase of fruit ; we see her diffusing 
happiness and virtue through a great portion 
of the human race. We can fancy genera 
tions yet unborn rising to prove and to hail 
her worth, and we adore that God who can 
destine a single human creature to be the 
stem of such extended and incalculable bene- 
fit to the world. All the treasures of a noble 
mind and generous heart, refined by Chris- 
tian culture, Monica dedicated to the glory of 
God and the benefit of her son and of her 
husband. In the character of wife, we find 
this illustrious pattern of Christian virtue 
existing for the happiest purposes. Marriage 
is often a state in which neither of the par- 
ties is much the better for coming together. 
When all consideration of their worth is put 
out of question in the motives that bring on 
the connection, the result must generally be, 
and naturally is, both unfavorable to their 
felicity and their manners. What a miserable 
business it is that terminates at best, after a 
short period, in a compromise to detest each 
other, with ceremony and politeness, and 
pursue their respective way of folly or de- 



22 Life of St. Augustine. 

pravity, according to their fancy ; a case 
where terms of endearment are used that the 
heart disavows, and a mask of union and affec- 
tion put on, in the vain hope of blindfolding 
the world. Yet such is the fate of many, 
many a pair ; and must ever be so, where the 
only inducement to the state is passion, in- 
terest, or the pride of alliance. 

Nothing, however, is more true than what 
the apostle has asserted, that a Christian wife 
is the salvation of her husband. For surely 
if any thing can have power to wean a man 
from evil, it is the living image of all that is 
perfect, constantly before his eyes, in the 
person whom, next to God, he is forced to 
reverence and respect, and who, next to 
God, he must be assured, has his present 
and future felicity most at heart; who joins 
to the influence of her example, the most 
assiduous attention to please ; who knows 
from the experience of every hour, where 
his errors and vices may be assailed with any 
prospect of success ; who is instructed, by 
the close study of his disposition, when to 
speak and when to be silent; who watches 



Life of St. Augustine. 23 

and distinguishes that gleam of reflection 
which no eye can perceive but her own ; who 
can fascinate by the mildness and humility 
of her manner, at the moment she expostu- 
lates and reproves ; who receives him with 
smiles and kindness, even when conscience 
smites him the most with a sense of his 
neglect and unworthiness ; who has always 
a resource at hand in his difficulties, and 
tender apologies to reprieve him from him- 
self; and a gracious presentiment ever on 
her lips, that the day will come, when he 
will know how to value the advantages of 
good conduct, and. the unruffled serenity of 
virtue. The ministry of such a woman is 
daily found to work the reformation of men, 
when all other resources fail ; when neither 
misfortune, nor shame, nor the counsels of 
friendship, nor the considerations of hell or 
heaven have any more effect than the whist- 
ling of the wind. Monica was in the fullest 
perfection such a character. To the violent 
temperament of her husband she opposed an 
angelic meekness, and, when the outburst 
was over, reproached him so tenderly, that 



24 Life of St. Augustine. 

he was always ashamed, which, had it been 
done sooner, would only have fed the unhal- 
lowed fire. His conjugal infidelity she bore 
with patience and forgiving charity. Her 
highest aim was to win him over to the faith, 
not so much by words, as by a truly humble 
and pious conversation, and the most consci- 
entious discharge of her household duties. 
In this she was the successful instrument of 
divine goodness ; for, a year before his death 
Patricius enrolled himself among the catechu- 
mens and was baptized. Her daily life was 
spent in strict conformity with the rule of 
the apostle, " Whatever she performed was 
for the glory and honor of God." Accord- 
ingly it was her delight " to meditate day and 
night on the divine law," and every morning 
and evening to attend church, to assist at the 
most holy sacrifice, and to hear the preaching 
of the gospel. She esteemed it a precious 
privilege to make a daily offertory at the 
altar, where in rapture she heard the defi- 
nite and triumphant exclamation of catholic, 
apostolic faith: "The chalice of benediction 
which we bless, is it not the communion of 



Life of St. Augustine. 25 

the Blood of Christ, and the bread which we 
break, is it not the partaking of the Body of 
the Lord." (Cor. II. ch. v.) With Christian 
liberality she extended her hand to the poor, 
whom she designated "her brethern in Jesus ;" 
not, as in modern barbarian phraseology, 
"the persons" — "the poor things." Strangers 
found a home in her hospitality, not the poi- 
soned civility of pity. Above all, she labored 
for the righteous culture of her children ; 
and, as Augustine declares, "bare her chil- 
dren spiritually with greater pains than she 
brought them forth naturally into the world." 
Such were the parents of Augustine. 
From his father he inherited those evil pro- 
pensities which tainted his early conduct, and 
produced the bitter anguish he afterwards 
so often, and so pathetically described. But 
from his mother he received the good dis- 
positions which, though sadly alloyed for 
some time, in the season of divine mercy, 
became instrumental for the prodigious 
operations of the grace of God. He says, 
that, "with his mother's milk his heart sucked 
in the name of Jesus," and it was always 



26 Life of St. Aitgttstine. 

dear to him even amidst his most grievous 
disorders. Wisely, his mother had the Holy 
Name on her tongue, in order that her son 
might learn to pronounce it betimes, and to 
invoke it in his little wants with the lisping 
accents of infancy. It became so deeply 
imprinted in his heart, that in after years 
he could not relish the lectures of heathen 
philosophers and orators, because they did 
not contain the name of Jesus, which he 
found so frequently in the epistles of St Paul 
The notice of this edifying fact must make 
every thoughtful Christian quake with hor- 
ror, when it is remembered how much this 
divine token of salvation is desecrated and 
profaned. We cannot pass by the occasion 
for wishing from the inmost soul, that men 
would imitate the sagacity of Monica, and 
the honor of Augustine, giving unto our 
dear Lord the reverence which is his portion, 
even with those infernal powers who believe 
and tremble, and bow the knee at the name 
of Jesus. Well may we exhort men to 
acquire the emolument of the name, which 
wrought, without other agent, the cure of a 



Life of St. Augustine. 27 

long standing infirmity, and is now no less 
availing as a remedy for the crippling and 
palsy of the soul, for the tepidity which 
blights its energies, for the self-love which 
dries up all the springs of spiritual health. 

Since that sacred Name was once formida- 
ble to devils, and scared them away from the 
strongholds of their fury, and the lurking 
places of their craft, they cannot be more 
tolerant of it now than of old ; since Christ 
and Belial are at war, and will be at war to 
the end. Well does St. Bernard say : " Falls 
there any one into a transgression, and 
rushes into despair and death? Let him 
rather invoke the Name of life, and will he 
not straightway recover his health and live ? 
When did hardness of heart ever encounter 
with success the saving Name, or the torpor 
of sloth, or the bitterness of the mind, or the 
languor of spiritual listlessness? When did 
not the invocation of the Name unlock the 
fountain of tears, and bid them gush' freely 
and flow sweetly? Who hath not gained 
courage from that Name, that hath called on 
it with heart beating, at the approach of 



28 Life of St. Augustine. 

danger? Here is the accomplishment of the 
promise : ' Call upon me in the day of 
trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt 
glorify me/ Nought so restrains the vio- 
lence of anger, assuages the swelling of 
pride, extinguishes the fire of concupiscence, 
moderates the thirst of avarice and curbs the 
impetuousity of inordinate affection. For 
truly, when I utter the name of Jesus, I set 
before the eyes of my soul one meek and 
humble, bland, temperate, chaste, merciful; 
a pattern, in fine, of all that is holy and of 
good repute, and the same Almighty Lord 
who is able both to heal me by His example 
and to fortify me by His aid. All these 
things sound in my ear with the sound of 
the name of Jesus." The affection which St. 
Augustine had for the Holy Name is one 
of the most brilliant points in his biography, 
and affords us the most uselul lesson when 
portraying his character. Hence we insist 
upon attention. St. Bernard calls the Holy 
Name " melody in the ear ;" and it is pro- 
fitable to remember that music grows upon 
us by repetition. Who would not purchase 



Life of St. Augustine. 29 

at any cost, the joy of recognizing the Sacred 
Name, when breathed into the ear by the 
Priest during the passage of the soul to 
judgment. The requisite for gaining that 
happiness is not impracticable. Let us take 
refuge in that most sweet Name, on each 
recurring occasion of trial ; in temptation, in 
sadness, in perplexity, let us use that Holy 
Name, so as to use it almost by instinct, and 
find in it a happy treasure. And then in the 
last agony, that Name will come with the 
power of music to the ear, as a prelude to 
the canticle which is sung before the throne 
of God, by those who carry hence, written 
on their foreheads, the Name which they have 
loved best on all earth. We dare to think 
that few are lost who habitually utter the 
name of Jesus, either mentally or orally. 

The faith of the son of Monica was neither 
sufficiently earnest nor sufficiently enlight- 
ened to withstand the whirlwind of the pas- 
sions ; nor could it resist the poisonous action 
of a hostile or even indifferent school of 
teaching. He was sent to school at an early 

age with the hope — on the part of his father 

3* 



30 Life of St. Augustine. 

that he might become distinguished in the 
world, — on that of his mother, "because she 
thought the common scientific studies might 
not only prove innocent, but also in some 
degree useful in leading him afterwards to 
God." In a Christian point of view, Monica 
was right. Although ignorant sciolists, such 
as are in our day the principal impediment 
to progress, pretend that science and virtue 
must be distinct and independent, there is 
between them the most intimate harmony. 
Varying in their objects, means, and pur- 
poses, they have a reciprocal influence in 
the order of religion and civilization. Noble 
sentiments generally spring from bright in- 
telligence ; and those adorn the vivid enlight- 
enment of the mind. Guided by virtue, 
science will avoid many fatal dangers, whilst 
the enrichment of science will give to virtue 
many attractions for homage. Hence the 
wise man in sacred Scripture received in 
knowledge a gift glorious beyond all the 
riches of the earth, (Wisdom, vii.) The 
Church, the divinely authorized minister of 
public instruction, does not dislike nor dis 



Life of St. Augustine. 31 

courage intellectual cultivation ; but detests 
and condemns the godless education which 
opened its first school under a very beautiful 
tree in woe-stricken Eden. 




CHAPTER II. 

Commencement of Augustine's Education — Brilliant Talents 
— Moral and Intellectual Aberrations — Painful unrest 
in the Conflict of Vice and Virtue — Ardent zeal of 
Monica for the welfare of her Son. 

T that very early period of life Augustine 
plunged into the vortex of pleasure, and 
allowed many a billow of passion to 
immerse his soul. Of faults so sincerely 
acknowledged by himself in his book of 
" Confessions," and so gloriously repaired by 
his services to religion, nothing is to be 
remembered but the penitence of the saint 
and the forgiveness of the merciful Re- 
deemer. When most astray in the wilder- 
ness of secular pursuits, and distracted by 
the clamor of sensuality, he was affected by 
the guardian genius of the devoted mother, 
he heard, like an echo from a shell on the 
shores of time, the religious impressions con- 
32 



Life of St. Augustine. $?> 

veyed with the name of Jesus ; his soul 
thrilled with emotions like weavelets from 
the heaving love in the Sacred Heart, and 
thence the fervid desire after God expressed 
in the opening of his Confessions : " Thou, 
God, hast created us for thyself, and 
our hearts are restless until they rest in 
Thee." 

Ambition greatly distinguished Augustine ; 
and the same ardor that inspired the humani- 
tarian toils of his youth, afterwards, sanctified 
by grace, vivified the nobler Christian aspira- 
tions of his maturity. In that passionate ele- 
ment, the desire for God always glimmered, so 
that in the dreariest hour of cloud and tem- 
pest, like the covenanted sign in the skies, 
even though with prismatic light, it spanned 
his soul with an arch of pacifying hope. Al- 
though he manifested wonderful talent in his 
earliest time, elementary instruction was for 
him quite a drudgery ; mathematics he de- 
tested as a dry nuisance, and his buoyant 
spirit made frequent and large exceptions to 
the rather martial law of the school ; and 
very hard words from the pupil, responded 



34 Life of St. Augustine. 

to the hard blows of the pedagogue. "Ex- 
tremes wont meet," says the proverb, antago- 
nism must be; and if in those olden times the 
masters came down on the youngsters, now 
when the world pretends to grow young 
again, the juveniles rouse up the old fogies. 
His first school was in his native town, 
thence he passed to the grammar-school at 
the neighboring city of Madaura. Then the 
early dislike for learning passed away, and 
the assiduity and success of studious applica- 
tion developed talents which elicited universal 
surprise and admiration. He excelled in the 
cultivation of Latin literature, the language 
being much to his taste, and familiar, through 
the conversation of the associates of child- 
hood. But Greek he almost hated, the per- 
plexing rules of its grammar being too much 
a restraint to the vivid and soaring genius 
which painters and poets, in after ages, com- 
memorated by the type of the eagle. The 
beauties of Homer he never relished, and 
the riches of Grecian classics were forfeited. 
He was charmed by the Ausonian muse ; he 
feasted on the keen wit, terse language and 



Life of St. Augustine. 35 

polished satire of Horace ; and Virgil, the 
immortal Bard of Mantua, fairly enraptured 
and inflamed him with fervid enthusiasm. 
With romantic diligence he followed Apneas 
in his wanderings, and shed tears over the 
fatality of Dido, who committed suicide for 
love ; " yet wept not — as he tells us — for his 
own death, caused by not loving the Lord." 
The wooden horse full of armed warriors, the 
burning of Troy, and the shade of Creusa, 
satiated his imagination. Poetry not only 
improved his knowledge of language, ex- 
panded his mental faculties, and facilitated 
invention, but also created an elevation of 
thought and grace of expression, conducive 
to sublime eloquence. Pursuing a course of 
studies perfectly congenial with his rare in- 
tellect, he surpassed all competition in the 
literary career. At a later period, when the 
saint had the proper criterion for science, he 
thanked God for the many good endowments 
of his childhood, and for his success in learn- 
ing, bearing fruits which he could offer to 
God, and earnestly begged that he might be 
enabled to refer them purely to His service. 



2,6 Life of St. Augustine, 

His successful display of eminent talents, 
especially his brilliant oratory, excited the 
fondest hopes in his father, who had already- 
destined him for the respectable and lucrative 
profession of a rhetorician, or public teacher 
of oratory. 

In his sixteenth year he returned to Tages- 
tum by order of his father, who designed to 
send him to the University of Carthage. He 
remained a year at home, that time being 
required to enable Patricius, who was not 
rich, to mature his project in as cheap a man- 
ner as possible. The leisure of that interval 
was exceedingly detrimental to the youth, 
who gave full vent to unruly passions, rushed 
boldly on the path of folly, and solaced him- 
self with poisoned enjoyment. The uncon- 
verted father heeded only the carnal emolu- 
ment to be gained at all cost ; but the ever 
faithful Monica labored in prayer and tears 
to bring around the wild plant a wholesome 
atmosphere, and sedulously admonished and 
exhorted him to lead a virtuous life. He 
himself confesses that he was ashamed to heed 
the exhortations of a woman ; and even pre- 



Life of St. Augustine. 37 

tended frequently to crimes which he had 
never committed, so as not to seem to fall 
behind his comrades. " I was not able," he 
says, "to distinguish the brighter purity of 
love from the darkness of lust. Both were 
mingled together in confusion ; youth in its 
weakness, hurried to the abyss of desire, was 
swallowed up in the pool of vice." He was 
not at rest, but cast to and fro by seductions 
of error and conflicts with passion ; some- 
times swayed by remorse of conscience and 
the attractions of virtue, he was elevated to 
the heavens by the ardor of his aspirations, 
then precipitated to depths of darkness by 
abject propensities ; almost in the same 
breath promising every thing good, and 
retracting his condemnations of iniquity, 
neither able to bear the burden of guilt nor 
the yoke of repentance, all his spiritual 
nature might be compared to a sea heaving 
waves of pang and anguish. The desire for 
God, so long rooted in his soul, moved again 
and again, not in soothing calm, but like the 
fire rushing through the whirling eruptions of 

a volcano. According to his own idea, the 

4 



38 Life of St. Augustine. 

guiding hand of the Lord mixed in the cup 
of his enjoyment, " the wholesome bitterness 
that leads us back from destructive pleasure, 
by which we are estranged from God." 




CHAPTER III. 

Augustine at Carthage — Enters the University — Tri- 
umph of Genius — Failure of Religion— Evil Tempta- 
tions in A Depraved City — Startling Crisis of the Pas- 
sions—Fatal Consequences of Bad Company — Faith 
wavers in the shock of morals — indomitable pursuit of 
Learning amidst the disturbances of an uneasy Con- 
science. 
f, 

O WARDS the end of 370 Augustine 
went to Carthage, the metropolis of 
Northern Africa. In that year Patricius 
died, having been baptized, and gained a 
prize for religion and heaven by the blessed 
interference of the exemplary Monica. Au- 
gustine was supported by his mother and the 
richest citizen of Tagestum, Romanianus, who 
was a distant relative. It was a sad trial for 
such a mother to part with her son, then in 
his seventeenth year, and to commit him to 
the temptations of a city in a condition of pro- 
gress and modern civilization which jargon 

39 



40 Life of St. Augustine. 

signified in that age the same realities of de- 
generacy and seething corruption that are 
characteristic of the present retrograde time. 
Carthage, reconstructed at the most bril- 
liant period of Roman civilization, was in 
luxury and riches one of the foremost cities 
of the empire, the equal of Antioch and 
Alexandria. More modern than those cities, 
it had an appearance of newness which, 
though not quite pleasing to the elite of artis- 
tic taste, is sure to attract popular admiration. 
The grand harbor lately constructed by Au- 
gustus, with wide quays, and streets stretch- 
ing far away in straight lines, well paved, 
sprinkled by fountains, and crowded with 
people, formed beautiful vistas. A street 
named " Celestial," was ornamented with 
many temples ; another, that of the Bankers, 
glittered with gold and marble. On exten- 
sive avenues were seen large manufactories 
of rich stuffs, markets abundantly supplied 
with the choicest food, stores of every kind 
of merchandise, and all the industrial and com- 
mercial activity of the old Carthaginian spirit. 
Literature, and the cultivation of liberal arts 



Life of St. Augustine. 41 

and science were not neglected. The num- 
erous schools of grammar, philosophy, and 
eloquence were crowded by the youths of 
Africa, who were talented, but frivolous and 
dissolute ; on one day applauding the pro- 
fessor, and on another rioting in mockery, 
insult and violence. 

To the taste for literature, Carthage added 
artistic entertainment. The theatres afforded 
the master-pieces of Grecian art, and the 
finest specimens of the Roman drama. She 
was not confined to the representations of 
Sophocles and Euripides, of Terence and 
Plautus. The sports of the circus, and the 
combats of beasts and gladiators were in 
vogue, and so great was the avidity of the 
people for those scenes, and the excitement 
of gamblers, that they generally ended with 
outrages and tumult. We can imagine what 
kind of manners prevailed in such a city. 
It sufficeth to say, that in those respects Car- 
thage rivalled Rome itself. Such was the 
city entered by a young man in his seven- 
teenth year, gifted with a lively imagination, 
ardent in passions, who as yet had only 



42 Life of St. Augustine. 

dreamed of the enchanted cup in which one 
imagines, at that age, to find every delight, 
and decides to drain it quickly and com- 
pletely. The perils of Madaura were naught 
compared with those of Carthage, and if the 
innocent Augustine succumbed so easily at 
Madaura, what could be expected for the 
culpable Augustine, in the deeper dangers 
of Carthage. 

He studied the sciences and humanities 
with a power and ardor of genius that won 
extraordinary approbation, and increased his 
ambition and self-conceit. It occurred with 
him as it invariably does when the best 
faculties are cultivated for the sordid motives 
of carnal and worldly interest. His soul was 
already a prey to sensual passions, and the 
associations of his collegiate life were not 
calculated to recall him to the austere per- 
formance of duty. He thought only of enjoy- 
ment; he knew no other pleasures than the 
gross and revolting indulgences of sense. 
"For within was a famine of that inward 
food, Thyself, my God; yet through that 
famine I was not hungered, but was without 



Life of St. Augustine. 43 

all longing for incorruptible sustenance, not 
because filled therewith, but the more empty, 
the more I loathed it. For this cause my 
soul was sickly and full of sores; it miserably 
cast itself forth, desiring to be relieved by 
the touch of objects of sense. ,, Truly, " there 
is nothing new under the sun," and much of 
the biography of the young student of Car- 
thage would fit multitudes in our day, when 
so called "modern thought — the advanced 
spirit of the age!' &c., are exact repetitions of 
the immoral sophistries of former centuries. 
Secret societies, popular leagues, clubs, and 
various unsocial and irreligious recruiting 
depots for the antichristian war of the inde- 
fatigable strategist, Satan, were not novelties 
in Augustine's erratic period. Quite natu- 
rally, in the course he pursued, he was 
ensnared by associates, and became a mem- 
ber of a society called " Eversores — Destruc- 
tives." The object of this organization was 
to embarrass religion, to discredit morality, 
and to calumniate, deride, and insult all pious 
and virtuous persons. Those men were 
showy in talents, most in vogue with the 



44 Life of St. Augustine. 

masses, very garrulous about the rights of 
humanity; self-sufficient, all-sufficient, and in- 
sufficient on the score of liberty, fraternity, 
equality; exceedingly alert and expert in 
guarding independence, and affording de- 
fence against statecraft and priestcraft, by 
building fortresses and castles — in the air ; 
and they were very witty. 

It would be well with Augustine, as it may 
be with many persons in our present genera- 
tion, if he had the good fortune to recollect 
the words of the royal prophet, "I hate the 
congregation of evil-doers, and will not sit 
with the impious." That point, that raillery, 
which spares neither sacred nor profane, is 
too amusing, has too many charms to be 
excluded from the intercourse of infidel and 
immoral bandits; nay, it is more than proba- 
ble that, did the Spirit of Darkness appear 
at this day, in rostrum or on platform, in the 
shape of a man of eloquence and of wit, his 
sallies against the heaven he forfeited would 
be heard without abhorrence — nay, with 
applause and admiration. Many a Christian, 
while admiring the brilliancy of the weapons 



Life of St. Augustine. 45 

which impiety employs, has sustained with- 
out perceiving it, an incurable wound; like 
the deluded mariner, who, as fable reports, 
becoming all ear to the song of the syren, 
unhappily overlooked the gulph into which 
it was intended to allure him. Firm prin- 
ciples of religion may defy the rude and 
direct assault of such men, as the noble 
and majestic oak defies the fury of the storm, 
but like it, too easily yields to the deep and 
insidious mine. Against the evil that stands 
confessed in all its native deformity, we are 
naturally on our guard, and collect all our 
strength; but all the grace and inspirations of 
heaven would scarcely be sufficient to guard 
against the art that steals us insensibly on 
to the precipice. What can be the resource 
of youth, urged on as it is by love of inde- 
pendence, and all the passions in their 
vigor, when thus exposed to such contempt 
of principles that have scarcely taken root? 
The result is ruin. Religion is renounced 
in its dawn, and the school of darkness is 
recruited from the very bosom of innocence 
and virtue. 



46 Life of St. Augustine. 

Although Augustine's aspirations were per- 
verted, and his morals corrupted by his asso- 
ciates, enough of the refinement effected by 
early maternal tuition remained to make him 
despise the meanness and vulgarity of those 
heathens and publicans. According to the 
testimony of friends and foes, he always 
loved decency and good manners even in 
his irregularities. At the beginning of his 
residence at Carthage, he contracted a crimi- 
nal intimacy with a woman, which lasted four- 
teen years. She bore him a son, named 
Adeodatus, whose promising gifts were much 
admired, but he died at an early age, after 
receiving baptism along with his father. 

"The first vengeance on the guilty," said 
a heathen poet, "is that which is inflicted on 
his bosom by his own conscience." Notwith- 
standing the pains taken by Augustine to 
deaden sensibility, he could not divest him- 
self of it; the more violent the ebullition of 
animal spirits, the more was the evaporation 
of tranquillity. It pleased the Lord of Life, 
with whom the ever vigilant Monica inter- 
ceded, to render the bad passions painful to 



Life of St. Atigttstine. 47 

the bosom which harbored them; evidently 
with a design to stimulate the patient to 
divest himself of their influence, by suggest- 
ing the most powerful motives — those of self- 
interest and self-satisfaction. In vain the dis- 
tracted youth sought for rest. In speculation 
or in action ; in boldest resolution, or in the 
collapse of hope, he experienced that a fabric 
may be raised, beautiful to the eye, but it will 
want a firm foundation; storms will shake it, 
and every blast will find its way to the poor 
shivering inhabitant. It is not substantial; 
it is like the glittering edifices built for orna- 
ment, of ice, or frostwork, which, as soon as 
the sun shines upon them, dissolve, melt 
away, and leave not a vestige of their tran- 
sient beauty. 

The disorders of Augustine did not inter- 
fere with his progress in study; his quick 
intelligence triumphed over every obstacle 
in the field of science. "Those studies," he 
says, "which were accounted commendable, 
had a view to excelling in the courts of 
litigation; the more bepraised, the craftier. 
Such is men's blindness, glorying even in 



48 Life of St Augustine. 

their blindness. And now I was the chief 
in the school of rhetoric, whereof I joyed 
proudly." 

The brilliant student soon became profes- 
sor of rhetoric in the metropolis of Africa, 
and was no less successful as a master than 
he had been as a scholar. But continu- 
ally his heart yearned for rest in God, and 
liberation from the debasing enslavement 
of the senses. This was especially evinced 
when in his collegiate course he applied him- 
self enthusiastically to study the " Hortensius" 
of Cicero, which work professed to give 
directions for aiming at truth only, and secur- 
ing its advantages in preference to every 
other interest. "This book," he says, "trans- 
formed my inclinations, and turned my 
prayers to Thee, O God, and changed my 
wishes and my desires. Every vain hope was 
extinguished, and I longed, with an incredible 
fervor of spirit, after the immortality of wis- 
dom ; I began to raise myself, that I might 
return to Thee ! and I knew not what Thou 
hadst designed with me ; for with Thee is 
wisdom : and these writings excited me to- 



Life of St. Augustine. 49 

ward love, toward wisdom, toward philosophy. 
And this particularly delighted me, that I was 
not asked therein to love, to seek, to attain, 
and to hold in firm embrace, this or that 
school, but Wisdom alone, as she might re- 
veal herself. I was charmed and inflamed." 
But he soon was disappointed by Cicero 
and other philosophers, because with them 
he did not find the name of Christ, so indeli- 
bly fixed in his mind by his first education. 
The ingenuous mind, as well as the noble 
and generous heart of Augustine, could not 
be satisfied with any thing transitory and 
merely speculative. He required truth — not 
mathematical, but sacred, life-giving truth — 
which being, as he says, "above the human 
understanding, can be found only where God 
is found." Not finding Jesus Christ, he did 
not find truth, for the Apostle says, "The 
Spirit beareth witness that Christ is Truth;" 
and of himself Christ declared, " I am the 
Way and the Truth." As this heavenly 
Truth is, of its nature, infinitely above the 
human understanding, it teaches men sub- 
lime things, into which their weak powers 



50 Life of St. Augustine. 

never can penetrate. Hence it brings with 
it grace, which pours a holy light upon our 
minds, as we are taught by these words, 
"Grace and truth are through Jesus Christ/' 
This grace, which illumines the soul and 
teaches it to bow down its reason before 
incomprehensible truths, is faith. Where is 
the fountain-spring whence it flows upon 
the world? "From Sion shall the law go 
forth, and the word of the Lord from Jeru- 
salem." " Sion is the city of our strength — 
a just nation shall enter therein, a people 
that keepeth truth." (Isa.) "Jerusalem shall 
be called the city of truth." (Zac.) But Jeru- 
salem was only the foreshadowing of Holy 
Church, which has been extolled by St. Paul 
as " the pillar and the ground of truth ;" for 
Jesus — the Life and the Truth — is its corner- 
stone, the rock upon which it is built. That, 
therefore, is the truth which faith teaches, 
which the Church proposes to our belief. 
Elsewhere Augustine's thirst for truth could 
not be satisfied. Alas ! his religious belief 
was blighted in the midst of the whirlwind 
of pleasure and of the vain plaudits of the 



Life of St. Augustine. 51 

world. The faith of childhood died out; he 
no longer believed the teaching of Chris- 
tianity. His soul, it is true, preserved an 
affectionate respect for the name of Jesus 
Christ, but this fruit of his early education 
found no support in his understanding, and 
subsisted only as a vague, unexplained senti- 
ment. With virtue and innocence, every 
Christian idea faded from his mind, so that 
instead of receiving the much-desired truth 
from the Church, he entertained the most 
incredible prejudices against its creed. He 
even attributed the most extravagant doc- 
trines to Christians. It was at this time he 
imagined that Christianity taught that God 
was a material being, with a body like man. 
He fared no better when he tried to allay his 
thirst for truth in the Sacred Scripture. He 
had not the guidance of the teaching which 
proceeds from the Paraclete, and which alone, 
according to divine appointment, can inform 
us of "all the things which Christ com- 
manded to be observed ;" therefore the Bible 
was for him nothing but folly and scandal. 
The Saviour has solemnly declared that 



52 Life of St. Augustine, 

those who will not hear the Church are in 
the condition of the Heathen and the Publi- 
can, and consequently find nothing but fool- 
ishness and perdition in the same Scripture, 
which is profitable to the man of God, in 
his capacity of instructor or disciple abiding 
within the Church, where the Spirit of Truth 
teaches all truth. Augustine had recourse 
to the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but 
the Bible, according to the fundamental prin- 
ciple of antichristians. And then he was 
chagrined to find merely a book, the whole 
book, made up of printed pages, pasteboard 
and leather covering, and nothing else but 
the material forming a book. For him there 
was no rhetorical excellence, no brilliancy to 
warm the animal desires, nothing for pre- 
sumptuous reason to pass judgment on; 
nothing but a disjointed concourse of poetry, 
prose, fable and story, commencing with dark 
chaos, and ending with misty apocalypse ; 
therefore the truth so much desired did not 
appear. He was in the predicament of 
the noble Ethiopian mentioned in the Acts 
of the Apostles; he could not understand 



Life of St. Augustine. 53 

when he had no man to show him, and he 
contemptuously rejected the Scriptures hon- 
ored by the explanation of the Divine Word, 
on the road to Emmaus, and which have 
always been a flaming truth, when the lamp 
and material oil are touched by the torch 
ignited in the teaching of the morning of 
Pentecost. In later years he solved the pro- 
blem, saying: "Believe, that you may under- 
stand." 




CHAPTER IV. 

Augustine falls into Materialism and Manicheism — Sur- 
prising OVERSHADOWING OF A NOBLE SOUL — INTENSE GRIEF 

of St. Monica — Relieved by a Heavenly Vision and 
Inspired Prediction — Augustine embraces the Profession 
of Rhetor — Grand Success— Providentially marred by 
Adversity — Wholesome Wailing of a Distressed Spirit — ■ 
The brilliant Intellect becomes Disappointed and Dis- 
gusted with the Conceited Absurdity of Heresy. 

N the surprising career of the man des- 
tined to be the especial champion of 
divine grace, it was signally permitted 
that the poor slave of the flesh should also* 
be the victim of a perverted intellect. He 
who was to extol the truth with singular 
success, experienced more than others the 
helplessness of human nature. Not being 
in earnest about his spiritual welfare, he did 
not sincerely inquire for the purification from 
sin: on the contrary, whilst youth and health 
lasted, he was determined to favor ambition, 
54 



Life of St. Augustine. 55 

and seek the palpable advantages of mate- 
rial enjoyment. Accordingly, he admired the 
pleasant persuasions of his own fancy ; found 
the logic of his private judgment irresisti- 
ble ; despised the Catholic Church because 
it spoke so much of faith, and exercised an 
authority interfering too much with man's 
natural rights. Thus Augustine descended 
to the lowest grade of intellectual misery. 
He had fallen into materialism, and into a 
doubly absurd form of materialism : into Ma- 
nicheism. Manes was the founder of the 
antichristian Society called after him Mani- 
cheans ; he adopted this name on account of 
assuming the title of the Paraclete, and to 
conceal the lowliness of his condition, since 
he was originally a slave in Persia. It is 
noteworthy that a change of name is fashion- 
able with rebels against the Church, who 
become heathens and publicans. The emi- 
nent leaders of impiety and impurity, Arouet, 
Luder, and Cauvin, changed their names to 
Voltaire, Luther, and Calvin. Like the gener- 
ality of founders of heresies, Manes was a 
thorough-going scoundrel, remarkable for 



56 Life of St. Augustine. 

impudence that cost him dearly. To acquire 
a name for himself he undertook to cure the 
son of the King of Persia ; the child died in 
his hands, and in payment for the perform- 
ance, the paraclete of imposture was flayed 
alive. A similar accident befell Mr. Cauvin, 
alias Calvin, who, being annoyed by the taunt 
of Erasmus, that the apostles performed 
many miracles — healing the sick, &c, whilst 
the impostor reformers could not cure a 
lame horse, undertook to raise the dead to 
life. The operation was planned to the sat- 
isfaction of Cauvin, (Calvin) ; a man feigned 
death, and, prostrated stiff and silent, awaited 
the signal for a lively movement. However, 
a different kind of summons occurred ; the 
poor wretch was raised up a corpse, and thus 
testified to the apostleship of destruction. 
Cauvin did not suffer quite so respectably 
as his brother impostor, Manes ; he was 
flayed alive by the vermin that devoured his 
putrid skin. 

The Manicheans taught a plurality of gods, 
alleging that there are two coeternal princi- 
ples, one of good and the other of evil, wholly 



Life of St. Augustine. 57 

independent and essentially opposed to one 
another. They pretended that man has two 
souls — one bad, which the evil principle 
created, together with the body ; and another 
good, which was coeternal, and of the same 
nature with God. All the good actions which 
man performs they attributed to the good 
soul ; and all the evil ones to the bad soul. 
Man has not a free will, but is always carried 
irresistibly forward by a force which he can- 
not resist. Those infidels denied the neces- 
sity and utility of baptism, detested the flesh, 
as being a creation of the evil principle, 
denied the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and 
of course, like all the agents of the founder 
of protestation against the Divine Word, 
they railed bitterly and blasphemously against 
the immutable and immaculate spouse of the 
Redeemer— the One, Holy, Catholic and 
Apostolic Church. They were consistent 
and coincident with the herd of Protestants 
since the first reformation discourse was de- 
livered by Satan at Eden, who, though dif- 
ferent as cancers, sores, and ulcers on the 
social body, or, as it is poetically said, form- 



58 Life of St. Augustine. 

ing "different denominations," are "all what 
each is, and each what all are," in their ani- 
mosity towards the Church. Manes professed 
to be the Paraclete promised by Christ, to 
restore the true Church, sadly contaminated 
by superstitious elements. The satanized ad- 
herents of this impostor reproached Catho- 
lics for believing blindly, on mere authority, 
and for not elevating themselves to the 
stand-point of knowledge. They pretended 
themselves to be in possession of perfect 
knowledge of Truth in her pure, unveiled 
form; although they professed the most 
shameless extravagances, and were addicted 
to every sort of impurity. It was at Car- 
thage that Augustine fell in with these 
strange masters, who spoke much of truth 
and science, and set forth their pretensions 
to unveil all mysteries ; and this noble genius, 
"whose wings had been cut," as Plato speaks, 
by sensuality, allowed himself to be caught 
in their vulgar toils. 

"I fell among men," says he, "proudly dot- 
ing, exceeding carnal and prating, in whose 
mouths were the snares of the devil. They 



Life of St. Augustine. 59 

cried out exceedingly, Truth, Truth, and 
spake much thereof to me, but truth was not 
in them; but they spake falsehood, not of 
Thee only, O my God, who truly art Truth, 
but even of those elements of this world, the 
work of thy hands." "Alas!" cries Augus- 
tine, after having recalled some of the errors 
of Manicheism, "by what steps was I brought 
down to the depths of hell ? Ah, my God ! I 
descended thither because I sought Thee, not 
according to the understanding of the mind, 
wherein thou willedst that I should excel 
the beasts, but according to the sense of the 
flesh." We necessarily feel surprised that 
such a man as Augustine, endowed with 
elevation of mind and generosity of heart, 
should for a moment even notice the errors 
and unheard-of absurdities into which Mani- 
cheism had led him, and become so stulti- 
fied as to consult astrologers, and believe all 
the follies of judicial astrology. Pascal says, 
"None so credulous as unbelievers," and 
nothing is more true. The whole history of 
Protestantism, viewed collectively, or in the 
diversity of its various denominations, for 



60 Life of St. Augustine. 

eighteen hundred years, confirms this asser- 
tion. People protest against the Church, 
become heathens and publicans by not hear- 
ing it; in the name of reason reject the 
Catholic Creed, reasonable though it be ; and 
they receive the most atrocious absurdities 
without proof and against reason, at the 
dictation, and by the guidance of men and 
women notoriously and avowedly impious 
and immoral, for example: drunken Luther, 
lecherous Calvin, and harlot Elizabeth. We 
may be shocked, but after due consid- 
eration we cannot be surprised, by any 
event on the score of infidelity, when we 
advert to the fact, that in our own day there 
are men of wealth, talent, and respectability, 
who profess being Christians by means of 
their association with a thing severally called 
"Anglican establishment," "Church by law 
established," "Protestant episcopal church;" 
having many aliases, like all notorious felons; 
but which is truthfully defined by the histo- 
rian Macaulay: "A political institution which 
was commenced by Henry, the murderer of 
his wives; it was advanced by Somerset, the 



Life of St. Augustine. 61 

murderer of his brother ; and it was com- 
pleted by Elizabeth, the murderer of her 
cousin and guest." 

Pride was the occasion of Augustine's ruin. 
"I sought with pride," says he, " what only 
humility could make me find. Fool that I 
was ; I left the nest, imagining myself able to 
fly, and I fell to the ground." His vanity was 
flattered by the Manichees, who pretended to 
test every thing by reason only, banishing all 
mystery, and denouncing faith as weakness, 
credulity, and ignorance. "They said that, 
setting aside dreadful authority, they would 
lead men to God, and free them by reason 
alone." Writing to his friend Honoratus, 
who was still detained in those errors, to 
which he himself had persuaded him, Augus- 
tine states this to have been the source of 
his ruin, that relying too much on the 
strength of his own reason, he despised 
the teaching and authority of the Catholic 
Church. " You know, Honoratus," he says, 
" that upon no other ground we adhered to 
these men. What else made me, rejecting 
for almost nine years together the religion 



62 Life of St. Augustine. 

which was instilled into me in my childhood, 
a follower and diligent hearer of these men, 
only their saying that we are overawed by 
superstition, and that faith is obtruded on 
us without reason being given." In his 
other works Augustine frequently remarks 
that this is the general method of heretics, 
and the usual occasion of failure in faith. 
u It is," he says, "as it were, a rule amongst all 
heretics, that they endeavor to overbear with 
the name and promise of reason, the most 
steady authority of the Church, which is 
firmly founded ; and this they are forced 
to do, because they perceive themselves to 
be contemptibly worsted, if their authority 
should once come to be compared with that 
of the Catholic Church." " All heretics gen- 
erally deceive by the ostentatious promise 
of science, and reprehend the simplicity of 
believers." 

Augustine had now become a thorough 
materialist. He admitted the existence of 
God, but a God who was corporeal and 
extended ; he could not conceive the exist- 
ence of beings purely spiritual. He says : 



Life of St. Augustine. 63 

"When I wished to think on my God, I knew 
not what to think of but a mass of bodies, 
(for what was not such did not seem to me 
to be any thing.) This was the greatest and 
almost only cause of my inevitable error. For 
hence I believed evil also to be some such 
kind of substance, and to have its own soul 
and hideous bulk. . . . And because a piety 
such as it was, constrained me to believe that 
the good God never created any evil nature, 
I conceived two masses contrary to one an- 
other, both unbounded; but the evil narrower, 
the good more expansive ; and from this pesti- 
lent beginning the other sacrilegious conceits 
followed. I knew not God to be a spirit, and 
that consequently he had neither a body com- 
posed of different members, nor one who 
hath parts extended in length and breadth, 
or whose being was bulk." 

Thus was this magnificent intellect stifled, 
as it were, in the folds of sensual passion ; 
it could no longer conceive any reality in the 
world of intelligence ; it could only recognize 
data apparent to the senses, and phantasms of 
the imagination which corresponded to them. 



64 Life of St. Augustine. 

The spectacle of such a fall recalls the 
pages of Plato, in which that profound ob- 
server points out that sensuality is the usual 
source of those shameful excesses into which 
the most highly gifted minds fall. "Take," 
says this eminent philosopher, " take these 
same souls from childhood, cut away and 
retrench all that the passion of lust deposits 
therein ; free them from the heavy masses 
attached to the pleasures of the table and 
such like enjoyments ; take away the weight 
which depresses the vision of the soul to 
inferior things. Then, if freed from such 
obstacles, the same gaze in the same men 
is turned toward the things that are true, it 
will behold them with the same penetration 
with which it now sees the objects to which 
it is turned." (Republ.) Never did any man 
justify, in the same degree as Augustine, 
these words of the great disciple of Socrates. 
His mother's grief for his strange and 
disgusting aberration was intense ; she would 
not sit at the same table, hoping by this 
abhorrence of his heresy, to excite him to 
a proper consideration of his fall ; and she 



Life of St. Augustine. 65 

unceasingly wept and prayed for his conver- 
sion. Consolation came to her in a vision, in 
which a shining youth told her that her son 
shall stand just where she shall stand. When 
she informed her son of it, he interpreted 
the vision as implying the speedy conversion 
of his mother to his side. " No, no," answered 
St. Monica ; " it was not said to me, where 
he is, there shalt thou be also ; but, where 
thou art, there shall he be also." This is an 
instructive example of the truthful simplicity 
of the saints that confounds the conceit of 
the worldly wise. Augustine confesses that 
this prompt reply made a greater impression 
on him than the vision itself. The devoted 
mother, despairing of her own efforts to 
reclaim the wayward youth, besought a bishop 
to convince him of his error. The sagacious 
prelate stated that disputation would be use- 
less so long as he was charmed by the 
novelty of the heresy, and influenced by the 
conceited notion of being guided by his own 
reason. " Pray for him," said he, "and your 
son will at length discover his error and 
impiety." St. Monica continued to implore 

6* 



66 Life of St. Augustine. 

him, with many tears, to discourse with her 
son concerning his fatal condition. However, 
he dismissed her, saying: " Go in peace; God 
bless you ; be assured that a child of those 
tears shall not perish." Monica received 
these words as an oracle from heaven. 

For nine years, up to the twenty-eighth of 
his life, Augustine remained in connection 
with those heretics, led astray and leading 
others astray. The usual heretical platitude 
of the discovery of seeming contradictions in 
the doctrines of the Church, their objections 
against the Old Testament, their speculations 
concerning the origin of evil, which they 
traced back to a primordial principle co- 
existent with God Himself, spoke in a flatter- 
ing manner to his presumptuous understand- 
ing, whilst their symbolical interpretations 
of the varied aspects of nature amused his 
conceited imagination. Nevertheless, the fra- 
gile fiction of Manicheism could not bear the 
test of unprejudiced genius ; the more he 
examined the less he was satisfied ; he soon 
found weak points and important omissions ; 
his soul was beset with doubts, and tortured 



Life of St. Augustine. 67 

by the struggle after unity, and the longing 
for truth. 

Having completed his academic course, 
Augustine now embraced the profession of 
" Rhetor," or public speaker, and teacher 
of the arts of speech. He established his 
school in his native city of Tagestum. Being 
well qualified by brilliant talents and rare 
acquirements for the honorable and lucrative 
occupation, he surpassed all competitors, 
and attracted the support and admiration of 
crowded audiences. The day of triumph was 
not of uninterrupted duration. Augustine 
was providentially subjected to the school of 
adversity, wherein the lessons of virtue are 
often taught most securely, though severely. 
The plaudits of the arena suddenly echoed 
within the chamber of death; a dear friend, 
a companion of boyhood, bound to him by 
affinity of tastes and pursuits, by early asso- 
ciation, and all that nourishes friendship, was 
struck by death. When the young man was 
prostrated by sickness, he was converted to 
Christ, and regenerated in the bosom of the 
Catholic Church by the holy sacrament of 



68 Life of St. Augustine. 

baptism. He had been led into the delu- 
sions of Manicheism by Augustine, who 
now tried to make sport of the conversion. 
But the unseemly interference was repelled 
with true Christian liberty. The empty 
shadow of a Christ, the sun, the moon, the 
air, and whatever else was pointed out by 
crazy Manicheism to the soul thirsting after 
salvation, could now yield him no comfort, 
but the simple, childlike faith of the Catholic 
Church alone. When he relapsed into the 
fever, he died the death of the just. The 
loss seemed too grievous to be borne with 
patience ; the separation rent the heart- 
strings of the woe-stricken Augustine ; the 
fountain of tears burst in torrents. His soul 
was covered with a dark pall of grief; death 
haunted every point; all places and things 
were so many torments, because the friend 
was no more to be seen. " Every thing I 
looked upon," he says, "was death. My 
fatherland became a torment to me, my 
father's house a scene of the deepest suffer- 
ing. Above all, my eyes sought after him ; 
but he was not given back to me again. I 



Life of St. Augustine. 69 

hated every thing because he was not there. 
I became a great enigma to myself." 

"When, after he had risen," as St. Paul 
speaks, " with Christ, and understood the 
things that are above," he condemned those 
earthy emotions. " O the folly," he exclaims, 
" of not knowing- to love men as men ! O 
foolish man, to suffer what is human beyond 
due measure, as I then did!" "Blessed is he, 
O Lord, who loves thee, and his friend in 
thee, and his enemy for thy sake. He alone 
loses no dear ones, to whom all are dear 
in Him, who can never be lost to us. And 
who is He but our God, the God who made 
heaven and earth, and fills them all ! No 
one loses Thee, but him who forsakes Thee." 

How different the encounter with death 
and its losses, when, enlightened by the teach- 
ing of the Church, Augustine became ac- 
quainted with " the resurrection and the life." 
Then religion, that lovely matron, that kind 
nursing mother, stepped in with friendly 
aspect, raised the mourner from the ground, 
and bid him look up to God, who can call the 
forms which moulder in the earth from the 



70 Life of St. Augustine. 

dark chambers of death, from a state of cor- 
ruption to a state of glory; who, after a 
short separation, can cause those who were 
united in love during life, to meet in love 
again after death, never more to be torn 
asunder, and wrenched from the rivets of 
affection. The uncontrollable anguish which 
burst from the perverted soul of Augustine, 
revealed an affection of the inmost spirit, that, 
when refined by divine grace, would turn him, 
like his prototype St. Paul, into a bright 
luminary for the service of Christianity. An- 
other important lesson is imparted by the 
exhibition, through this severe suffering, of 
the weakness of infidelity and of mere human 
wisdom. It has no consolation for the dark 
hours of trouble ; whatever it may promise 
is falsified at the brink of the grave. The 
voice of the Church only repeats intelligibly 
the promise of Jesus : " I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life; he that believeth in me shall 
never die." Hence the hope to assuage the 
bitterest grief, as Augustine experienced 
when he breathed its elements in the prayer 
offered at the altar, by the request of his 



Life of St. Augustine. 71 

pious mother. Sweet hope ! unknown to the 
unrighteous, to the disputer of this world, the 
vain, the conceited caviller, into whose callous 
bosom the beams of grace never penetrated ; 
sweet hope ! and more to be desired than all 
the treasure tithed out of the sweating laborer 
in payment for being taught that not one 
crumb of comfort from the banquet of religion 
falls on the bed of sickness, or drops into the 
grave. To meet those who were dear to us 
as our own souls, in a purified and exalted 
state, lovelier and more estimable than they 
ever appeared on earth ! Delightful expec- 
tation ! and blessed is he who cherishes it, 
and praised be the Saviour who has in his 
revelation given wretched human nature 
reason to embrace it with confidence. 

In consequence of the sad bereavement 
which made life so dismal in his native city ; 
actuated also by the ambition of displaying 
his abilities on a more favorable theatre, he 
removed to Carthage. He opened a school 
of rhetoric, was enthusiastically applauded 
at the public disputations ; carried away the 
chief prizes for poetry and oratory ; and was 



72 Life of St. Augustine, 

crowned by proconsular hands. But when 
the glare of vanity was scattered by the 
steady light ©f truth in the time of his con- 
version, he discovered that he had been 
blinded and seduced by pride of science, 
and degraded by the idiotic mimicry of 
religion. The pursuit of popular favor ; the 
racking contest for crowns of weeds ; the 
quest of purification from sin by carrying 
food to the self-named saints, which was to 
be moulded in their stomachs into angels 
and gods, stupefied even the brilliant Augus- 
tine. Considering his folly, he cries out to 
God in feeling and humble acknowledgment 
of his weakness : " What am I to myself 
without Thee, but my own guide, falling 
headlong down a precipice." 

Manicheism could not long satisfy this 
erring genius. He soon found therein weak 
points and important omissions, and his mind 
was beset with doubts. Consideration being 
excited, he could not fail to perceive the 
foul imposture of the boasted sanctity of the 
class called the elect ; and the grossness of 
their vices tore down the hypocritical mask 



Life of St. Augustine. 73 

of peculiar, puritanical virtues. One moment 
of serious, attentive observation sufficed to 
expose the contradictions and absurdities of 
the Manichean denomination of Protestant- 
ism. The notion of evil as a substance co- 
eternal with God, could not satisfy his spirit 
in its struggle after truth ; no more than 
the honest inquirer, now, can be satisfied 
with the assertion of modern denominations 
of the same pestilence, viz: that foul super- 
stition coexists with the spotless subsistence 
of the Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ. 
The shameless heretics being confounded 
when "a reason was asked for the hope," 
they pretended every thing, tried to beguile 
him. They promised that every thing would 
be explained satisfactorily by an apostate 
bishop named Faustus, whom they extolled 
as a wonderful man, perfectly skilled in all 
manner of science. And it is very probable 
that the doctrinal prowess of the great oracle 
was enhanced by an assurance that he was 
in keeping with the progress of the age, and 
thoroughly informed by the modern thought 
of that period. Augustine was flattered with 
7 



74 Life of St. Augustine. 

the expectation that Faustus would readily 
clear away his difficulties. But how he was 
disappointed ! He saw this incomparable 
doctor, and found him to be only a brilliant 
talker; he had no solution for those grave 
questions with which the anxious soul was 
tormented. Augustine compares him to a 
cup-bearer, who with graceful politeness pre- 
sents a costly goblet without any thing in 
it. 

"With such things,' , says he, in allusion 
to his discourses, " my ears were already 
satiated. They did not appear better because 
beautifully spoken, nor true because eloquent, 
nor spiritually wise because the look was 
expressive, and the discourse select. Thou, 
my God, hast taught me, in wonderful and 
hidden ways, that a thing should not seem 
true because portrayed with eloquence, nor 
false because the breath of the lips is not 
sounded according to the rules of art ; on the 
other hand, that a thing is not necessarily 
true because conveyed in rude, nor false 
because conveyed in brilliant language ; but 
that wisdom and folly are like wholesome 



Life of SL Augustine. 75 

and noxious viands — both may be contained 
in tasteful or unadorned words, as they in 
rough or finely wrought vessels. ,, In the 
private conversations which he held with 
Faustus, the latter could not answer ques- 
tions of importance to the truth of the Mani- 
chean system ; which exhibition of inability 
and ignorance did not correspond with the 
presumption and conceited audacity of the 
heresy. This disappointment of his expecta- 
tions destroyed whatever regard and confi- 
dence Augustine had for the imposture ; yet 
his prejudices against the Catholic faith kept 
him away from the pillar and ground of 
truth, and doomed him to the protracted 
agony of uncertainty, without a formal renun 
ciation of his enslavement in error. Many 
edifying considerations are suggested by a 
view of Augustine appearing like the alarmed 
disciples on the tempest-tossed sea of Gali- 
lee, and then afterwards borne along securely 
on the same waves, calmed by divine influ- 
ence, to zealous action in the work of the 
Lord's service. The wisdom of God reveals 
itself especially in this, that He knows how 



J 6 Life of St. Augustine. 

to bring good out of evil, and makes even 
the sins and errors of his servants contribute 
to their own sanctification, and an increase of 
their usefulness. And yet this by no means 
renders wickedness excusable. To the ques- 
tion — " Shall we continue in sin, that grace 
may abound?" the Apostle Paul answers 
with horror, "God forbid"! The extravagant 
life of Augustine prepared him to look, after- 
wards, in the light of grace, far down into 
the abyss of sin, into the corruption and 
ingratitude of the human heart. The bare 
thought of it deeply humbled him ; but the 
humility that can say with St. Paul, " I am 
the chief of sinners," is one of the most 
beautiful pearls in the crown of the Christian 
character, whilst spiritual pride and self- 
righteousness gnaw like worms at the root 
of piety. 

It is a peculiar distinction of Augustine, that 
in regard to deep, unfeigned humility, he 
bears signal resemblance to the great apostle. 
He manifests, in all his writings, a noble 
renunciation of self in the presence of the 
Most Holy, and his spirit goes forth in thank- 



Life of St. Augustine. 77 

fulness to the superabounding grace which, 
in spite of his unworthiness, had drawn him 
out of corruption, and overwhelmed him with 
mercy. By his own painful experience he 
was also fitted to develop the doctrine of 
sin with such rare penetration and subtlety, 
as to refute completely the superficial theo- 
ries of Pelagius, and thus to render an invalu- 
able service to theology and to the Church. 
Further, his theoretical aberration into Mani- 
cheism fitted him to overthrow that foul and 
dangerous heresy, and to prove, by a strik- 
ing example, how fruitless the search after 
truth must be, outside of the simple, humble 
faith of the Church. Thus also was St. Paul, 
by his learned, Pharisaic education, better 
qualified than any other apostle for contend- 
ing successfully against the false interpreta- 
tions and legal righteousness of his Judaistic 
opponents." 




CHAPTER V. 



Augustine proceeds to Rome — His departure a melancholy 

SCENE, MOST SADDENING TO THE TENDER HEART OF St. MONICA 

— Magnificent display of Maternal Piety — Condition of 
Rome — Augustine's Scepticism — Honored and applauded 
he is promoted to a distinguished office in the impe- 
RIAL City of Milan. 



N the year 383, the young professor left 
Carthage and repaired to Rome. He 
had grown weary of the turbulence and 
dissoluteness of the students at Carthage ; he 
was told that the youth of the Roman school 
were more modest and docile ; moreover, the 
grandeur implied by the very name of the 
eternal city, flattered him that he would 
obtain fortune and honor more rapidly in 
that renowned centre of power and glory. 
Also the irrepressible desire for truth, and the 
fearful dreariness of scepticism, inclined him 
to seek in new associations and new scenes 

78 



Life of St. Augustine. 79 

the means for quieting his troubled soul. 
The circumstances attending this journey 
form one of the most affecting passages in 
the life of this man of marvellous genius, and 
saint of celestial election. We are again 
reminded of the resemblance of Augustine 
and Paul of Tarsus ; whilst we reverently 
bow in admiration of the unsearchable judg- 
ments of the Most High, we do not dare to 
find out, but we adore the ways of His wis- 
dom. Behold the fiery zealot rushing towards 
Damascus proceeds as if on a marked out 
path to meet the flame which, like the coun- 
ter-shock of lightning in the storm-cloud, 
breaks up the darkness of error, and ignites 
the blaze of truth in the purified element of 
right reason. Augustine, inflamed by ambi- 
tion, approached nigher to the occasion for 
his aspirations to be refined by the ardor of 
divine love, when from beneath the shadows 
of sin, the natural qualities of his passionate 
soul kindled up into a holy brightness 
that illumined every field of thought, and 
mingling with the expansive gospel teaching, 
shed its radiance through the universe of 



8o Life of St. Augustine. 

faith. The devoted St. Monica was alarmed, 
and grieved by this new and seemingly dan- 
gerous adventure of the son in whose spirit- 
ual welfare all her affections were centred. 
Earnestly she tried either to divert him from 
his purpose, or to be admitted to companion- 
ship in his voyage. 

Augustine would not agree with her pro- 
posals, and to rid himself of the loving impor- 
tunity of his mother, adopted a stratagem 
very discordant with his usual character of 
candor and freedom from meanness. One 
evening he proceeded to the beach, to em- 
bark near the place where two chapels had 
been dedicated to the memory of the illustri- 
ous martyr, St. Cyprian. He did not escape 
from the vigilance of St. Monica, and he pre- 
tended that he was about to board the ship 
to bid a long farewell to a departing friend. 
The mind of the anxious mother, bright with 
the wisdom of her Christian zeal, detected 
the duplicity of this statement ; and as she 
pleaded the inconvenience of returning alone 
to a forsaken home, he adroitly persuaded 
her to pass the night in the church of the 



Life of St. Augustine. 81 

holy martyr, awaiting his return to accom- 
pany her with filial regard at the dawn of 
day. There, leaning on the martyr's tomb, 
Monica spent the long hours of the night, 
a night darkened by the most dismal gloom, 
the sadness of a fond mother's aching heart. 
Her tears moistened the soil where martyrs' 
blood germinated blooming flowers of Chris- 
tianity, and so those tears vegetated the fair- 
est palm for the coronal of gospel triumph. 
"The son of those tears would not perish." 
O ! ever be praised the divine word, which 
says, " Blessed they who weep," and forever 
more be admired the miraculous production 
of that bliss! Poor blinded men exclaim, 
" There is no miracle ;" they do not see one 
of the greatest miracles, namely, "the turn- 
ing of sorrow into joy," effected by the Word 
made flesh, through the instrumentality of 
His sacramental grace. What is the natural 
order of grief — to what purpose flow the 
tears shed in accordance with the " laws and 
forces," about which philosophers prate ? 
Aridity, desolation, weeds of woe, thorns of 
pain for the " exiled sons of Eve, sighing 



82 Life of St. Augustine. 

and weeping in this valley of tears." Behold 
a miracle in those same tears ! 

The tears of Magdalen, dropped on the 
feet of Jesus, sparkled in the eyes of peni- 
tent love, with the earliest ray of the arisen 
sun, breaking over the horizon of death, in 
the resurrection of the crucified Redeemer. 
The tears of Peter falling into the track of 
the Saviours footsteps at the threshold of 
Pilate's court, were fused, by loving faith, into 
diamonds to form the triple crown of a prin- 
cipality, of eternally confirmed faith, growing 
out of the royalty of a threefold profession 
of love. The tears of Monica moistened the 
adamantine scepticism of Augustine, and from 
the deep fissures of sensuality and vanity, the 
flames of love issued miraculously, like the 
transmutation of the muddy water bursting 
in fire from the bottom of the well in the 
land of Judah, when it was touched by the 
pure air of heaven. 

Whilst the wounded feelings of the disap- 
pointed mother heaved like the disturbance 
of a tempest, and she tried to steady her 
soul with a hope that the Lord would pre- 



Life of St. Augustine, 8 



vent the suspected voyage, Augustine's bark 
impelled by a favorable wind was cleaving 
the dark blue waves of the Mediterranean. 
We can imagine Monica, when on the next 
morning she went to the sea-shore, and 
looked out upon the waste of waters from 
which the truant son had disappeared. Soli- 
tary she stood ; too much paralyzed with 
grief to swoon, the moaning of the ebbing 
tide at her feet seemed to give the note for 
murmuring and reproach. But no ; she 
would not abandon her precious vocation 
of bringing forth a child for divine grace 
even by the fecundity of her tears ; and so 
she not only wept and prayed, but desired 
to give her all, her life itself, to be able to 
lift from that sea one pearl of great price, 
Augustine, purified, sanctified, and fitted for 
the service of God. "Father, thy will be 
done," was her daily prayer, and fortified by 
the refreshment of that resignation, she re- 
turned to her home, to await the fulfilment 
of the long remembered prediction, that " the 
son of those tears could not perish." Al- 
though her expectation was prolonged, she 



84 Life of St. Augustine, 

hoped for the best in the season of the Lord's 
wise and merciful appointment. "There- 
fore," says Augustine, "hadst thou, O God, 
regard to the aim and essence of her desires, 
and didst not do what she then prayed for, 
that thou mightest do for me what she con- 
tinually implored." 

After a prosperous voyage, Augustine 
reached the imperial city ; he lodged with a 
Manichean, and still frequented the meetings 
of the heretics. He was convinced the truth 
was not to be found with them, but he des- 
paired of finding it elsewhere. 

Rome was still in the height of its renown, 
the ravages of barbarism had not reached 
it, and time had only touched the marble of 
its monuments with the bronzed and golden 
coloring which is esteemed a mark of 
beauty. The gorgeous edifices formed in the 
purest horizon, the aqueducts, the temples, 
the triumphal arches, testimonies of human 
prowess ; the wide spread plain crowded 
with ruins and tombs, magnificent evidence 
of mortal vanity, impressed the tender and 
sensitive soul of the refined scholar. And as 



Life of St. Augustine. 85 

it is certain that deep sadness makes that 
land, paved with the cinders of the human 
race, more pleasing, Augustine must have 
been considerably charmed. The year he 
spent there, was for him a year of sorrow. 
The small amount of his belief hastened to 
disappear. He perceived it falling piece by 
piece from his soul, like the deadened leaves 
in autumn, and strewing every step he made 
in the eternal city. 

If Augustine had then steadily looked at 
the Church, and asked there for truth, he 
probably would have abridged the painful 
ordeal through which he passed before he 
reached the enjoyment of religious repose. 
The Church at Rome shone in the full bril- 
liancy of the glory allotted to her by the Lord 
for the seasons of her transfiguration and 
resurrection. The illustrious St. Damasus 
then governed the bark of St. Peter. In the 
year preceding the arrival of Augustine, the 
Pope had convoked a general council at 
Rome for the solution of various questions. 
Thither flocked the most illustrious bishops 
of Christendom ; St. Ambrose of Milan, Epi- 



&6 Life of St. Augustine* 

phanius of Cyprus, Valerian of Aquila, Paul- 
inus of Aquila, and a host of venerable 
prelates renowned for virtue and learning. 
Arriving at Rome, Augustine beheld one of 
those splendid proofs of the unity, catholicity 
and indefectibility which the Lord has given 
to his Church eighteen times since the first 
model for councils was held in Jerusalem. 

In another point of view, the Church at 
Rome presented an aspect most likely to 
touch the heart of Augustine. Virginity and 
charity, twin sisters, born on the same day 
at the foot of Calvary, united in the fond 
embrace of faith and hope, traversed the 
world, scattering on their way lilies and roses 
from the garden of Sion. At Rome, one 
could see the descendants of Scipio, of Grac- 
chus, of Camillus, of Marcellus, &c, working 
in hospitals, and their lovely young daughters 
serving the sick, dressing their w T ounds, wash- 
ing their feet, with their own noble maiden 
hands performing the disagreeable offices of 
the infirmarian, and obliging an astonished 
world to read the Truth set in the bright 
type of Charity. 



Life of St. Augustine. 87 

As saintly souls transported far away from 
this miserable world by the ardor of faith 
and piety, aspire continually after guidance 
to enable them to rise higher in the atmos- 
phere of holiness, those admirable spirits, 
Paula, Fabiola, Eustachia, and Marcella, were 
to be seen grouping around the wonderful 
oracle of sacred science, St. Jerome, who ex- 
plained to them the divine Scriptures, opened 
on their minds a flood of light, and trans- 
formed their hearts into altars for the sacri- 
fices of devotion and piety. If Augustine 
had looked wisely on such scenes, he would 
have been enchanted. Soon after his arrival 
in Rome he fell sick of a violent fever, and 
seemed at the point of death and of per- 
ishing forever. " For whither had I gone," 
says he, "if I had then died, but into those 
flames and torments, which I deserved?" The 
prayers of Monica, although absent, streamed 
incessantly to the throne of grace, and ob- 
tained restoration of health for the useful life 
which would cultivate the fruit of her tears. 
"Thou, O God," exclaimed the grateful con- 
vert, "didst permit me to recover from that 



SS Life of St. Augustine. 

disease, and didst make the son of thy hand- 
maid whole, first in body, that he might 
become one on whom Thou couldest bestow 
a better and more secure resto ration." 

Again restored to health, he endeavored 
to recall from Manicheism some friends 
whom he had perverted; but he could not 
lead them nor himself to truth, being still 
more than usually averse to the teaching of 
the gospel. The incarnation was to him a 
"scandal and a folly/' as it is to all Jews and 
Gentiles. He would not hear the Church — 
he could not be enlightened by the murky 
gloom of scepticism, and hence he was "tossed 
to and fro by every wind of doctrine," as 
naturally happens to those who will not re- 
ceive the sound form of words from those 
whom Jesus Christ has appointed pastors 
and teachers, to teach all truth. 

"The more earnestly and perseveringly 
I reflected on the activity, the acuteness, and 
the depth of the human soul, the more I was 
led to believe that truth could not be a thing 
inaccessible to man, and came thus to the 
conclusion that the right path must be marked 



Life of St. Augustine. 89 

out by Divine authority. But now the ques- 
tion arose, what this Divine authority might 
be, since among so many conflicting sects 
each professed to teach in its name. A 
forest full of mazes stood again before my 
eyes, in which I was to wander about, and to 
be compelled to tread, which rendered me 
fearful." The weary spirit began to think that 
truth cannot be comprehended by man, and 
that possibly the Academics were the wisest 
of philosophers, for " they doubt all things, 
and abstain from affirming any thing." A 
more ridiculous remedy for sickening distrac- 
tion could not be devised, than recourse to 
this miserable scepticism. However, it served 
to convince Augustine of the inutility of 
hoping to find truth elsewhere than at the 
natural fountain springing out of the rock 
of faith. Other troubles checked the grand 
success of his Roman enterprise ; and the 
brilliant dreams of the admired professor 
quickly vanished. 

Students of rhetoric were not wanting to 
Augustine ; the disorders which reigned at 
Carthage did not show themselves in the 



90 Life of St. Augustine. 

Roman schools, but in them turbulence was 
replaced by meanness. It often happened 
that the scholars plotted together, and to 
avoid paying their master's stipend, deserted 
his lessons in a body, in the midst of 
his course, without paying their dues, and 
went to another, to repeat the same shabby 
trick when convenient. Augustine felt pro- 
found contempt for such conduct; disgust 
soon followed contempt, and he determined 
to seek a more agreeable situation. The 
city of Milan, at that time the residence of 
the emperor, had requested Symmachus, pre- 
fect of Rome, to send thither an able profes- 
sor of rhetoric. Augustine solicited the ap- 
pointment ; his honorable character ; his wide- 
spread fame ; and still more, his trial speech, 
obtained for him the honorable and lucrative 
post. Symmachus, prefect of Rome, was at 
the same time pontiff and augur, an eloquent 
advocate of declining Heathenism, and was 
the same who shortly afterwards begged of 
the emperors the restoration of the statue 
and altar of Victory. This defender of the 
old Roman divinities little thought that the 



Life of St Augustine. 91 

young professor of rhetoric was destined to 
strike the last blow against the gods, to close 
the sepulchre of the old pagan world, and to 
plant over its immense tomb the Cross of 
Christ, the prophetic symbol of a glorious 
futurity. It was at Milan that Divine Provi- 
dence awaited Augustine. There the pure 
light of truth was to open his weary, aching 
eyes, and restore to them that clear strong 
vision which they had lost through contact 
with passion and sophistry ; there the warmth 
of Christianity was to dissolve the fetters 
which bound him in the captivity of cold, 
selfish infidelity, setting him free in the liberty 
of the sons of God; there he was to be 
elevated from the lowly servitude of stupid 
human opinion and ignorant human judg- 
ment, and he was to enjoy the knowledge 
given to the domestics of the household of 
faith in the kingdom of the Lord — the One, 
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. 






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CHAPTER VI. 



Arrival at Milan — St. Ambrose's character destined to 
restore the wanderer to the home of religion — the 
Church at that Period — Augustine is favorably im- 
pressed by St. Ambrose — Advance and hesitation on the 
way of Truth — St. Monica's Arrival — Rejoices at the 
good prospect of the fruit of her tears and prayers — 
Augustine's study of Plato and St. Paul — Improved 
reading of sacred scripture — combat between nature 
and Grace. 



Qf UGUSTINE, accompanied by his faithful 
Mi and accomplished friend Alypius, arrived 
SI at Milan toward the end of the year 384. 
He was then thirty years of age. He was 
received with distinguished courtesy by the 
most respectable citizens, who were soon 
convinced that he deserved the esteem and 
applause which greeted him. The name of 
the Bishop of Milan was not unknown to 
him, for the fame of Ambrose "filled the 
whole world." The holy prelate holds the 
most elevated rank amongst the fathers, as 
92 



Life of St. Augustine. 93 

being one of the four Doctors of the Church, 
represented as upholding, in conjunction with 
Saints Augustine, Gregory and Jerome, the 
primatial chair of St. Peter. He earned 
everlasting esteem by theological attain- 
ments, by cultivation in arts and sciences; 
and was most honorably distinguished by 
the apostolical exercise of episcopal juris- 
diction. He was born at Treves, in the year 
340, of a very ancient and illustrious Roman 
family. His father was governor of Gaul, 
one of the three great provinces of the 
Western Roman empire. Many extraor- 
dinary events signalized the life of this illus- 
trious prelate, w^hich are not doubted by 
persons who usually discredit, and jibe at 
the marvellous characteristics of the saints. 
When yet a child, as he lay sleeping in the 
cradle with his mouth open, a swarm of bees 
came buzzing around, and flew in and out 
of his mouth without doing him any injury. 
The father, astonished at the unexpected 
vanishing of the danger, cried out in a pro- 
phetic mood, "Truly, this child, if he lives, 
will turn out something great." 



94 Life of St. Augustine. 

After the death of the prefect, his pious 
widow moved to Rome with her three chil- 
dren, and gave them a careful education. 
After the completion of his studies Ambrose 
embraced the profession of law, and gained 
so much applause by his learned skill and 
eloquence, that Probus, the governor of Italy, 
appointed him his counsellor. Soon after, 
he conveyed to him the vicegerency of the 
provinces of Liguria and Emilia, with the 
remarkable words, which subsequent events 
caused to be interpreted as a prophecy: "Go, 
and act, not as judge, but bishop." The 
Church was then disturbed by the turbulent 
followers of arch-heretic Arius, who denied 
the divinity of our adorable Saviour. Auxen- 
tius, an apostate, effected the exile of the 
Catholic bishop Dionysius, and usurped the 
episcopal chair, but he died in the year 374. 
At the election of a new bishop, the rage of 
contending parties was so great, that it was 
feared the disturbance would end in blood- 
shed. Ambrose thought it his duty as gov- 
ernor, to enter the church and quell the 
commotion. He was suddenly interrupted 



Life of St. Augustine. 95 

by the exclamation of a child, " Ambrose! 
Be bishop!" This expression was instantly 
repeated by the people, who unanimously 
insisted on having him alone for pastor. 
Ambrose was awfully surprised. He was 
then only in the class of the catechumens, 
consequently not baptized, and had such a 
sense of the sacredness and responsibility 
of the office of a bishop, that he considered 
himself totally unfit for the position. He 
in vain endeavored by flight, and various 
stratagems, to escape the burden; the call for 
his services was imperative and universal, so 
that he conscientiously submitted to the pres- 
sure of circumstances, which he conceived 
to be expressive of a vocation from heaven. 
After being baptized, and having rapidly 
received the minor and sacred orders, he was 
consecrated on the eighth day. The election 
and elevation of the illustrious prelate were 
indeed extraordinary events, which by the 
very fact of their unusual occurrence, mani- 
fested precisely the interposition of Holy 
Ghost placing bishops to rule the Church. 
This was the judgment of the cotempora- 



g6 Life of St. Augustine. 

ries of St. Ambrose, especially of his friend, 
St. Basil of Caesarea, who rejoiced on the 
occasion. "We praise God," he wrote, "that 
in all ages He chooses such as are pleasing 
to Him. He once chose a shepherd and 
set him up as ruler over his people. Moses, 
as he tended the goats, was filled with the 
Spirit of God, and raised to the dignity of 
a prophet. But in our days He sent out 
of the royal city, the metropolis of the world, 
a man of lofty spirit, distinguished by noble 
birth and the splendor of riches, and by an 
eloquence at which the world wonders, and 
who renounces all these earthly glories, and 
esteems them but loss, that he may win 
Christ, and accepts on behalf of the Church, 
the helm of a great ship made famous by his 
faith. So be of good cheer, O man of God!" 
The Church had come forth from the cata- 
combs, kings and princes had become her 
protectors, the cross shone brightly on the 
imperial capitol, and with the heroic courage 
matured on the battle-field of martyrdom, 
the ministers of Jesus Christ "went forth 
into every land," to evangelize and civilize 



Life of St. Augustine. 97 

the world. The testimony of St. Paul might 
be repeated more forcibly than ever, when 
he said to the Romans : " Your faith is 
heard throughout the world." Tertullian had 
defiantly and truthfully told the heathens: 
"We are all what each is, and each what 
all are." .... "We are everywhere, in your 
courts, your armies, your marts, your senates; 
we have left you nothing but the ruins of 
your dirty temples." Prince, peasant, philo- 
sopher, senator and slave, bowed in baptism 
before the altar where "the chalice of bene- 
diction we bless is the communion of the 
blood of Christ, and the bread we break is 
a partaking of the body of the Lord." There 
were no longer vices which might not be 
cured by Christian grace : a republic of just 
men was no longer a myth, as was evidenced 
through wantons sanctified by penance, pub- 
licans clothed in honesty, persecutors turned 
into apostles, and thousands of virgins per- 
fuming the sanctuary with their fragrant 
vows of purity and holiness. Many who 
were rich coveted the emoluments of poverty, 
and the poor were solicitous to enjoy the 



98 Life of St. Augustine 

luxury of the wonderful beatitude : " Blessed 
are the poor." Wolves became lambs when 
the Caesars became Christians; humility was 
established in haughty Rome, chastity flour- 
ished in Cypria, and faith prevailed in scep- 
tical Athens. 

Scythia, which hardly used civility towards 
friends, lovingly embraced enemies ; and sen- 
sual Asia bowed at the name of Jesus, and 
crucified itself for his honor. Not a long 
time before, you might have traversed the 
whole of the Roman empire, then comprising 
the whole of the known world, without meet- 
ing an asylum for the sick and distressed ; 
the Church, in its onward march to preach 
the gospel of love, was a friend, a protector, 
apparent to the needy, the widow and the 
orphan ; and to all the poor, that divine 
legacy bequeathed to her by the Saviour. 
Whilst her main object was to lead men to 
heaven, she scattered blessings on earth as 
she moved along the highway of religion. 
From every cross topping the spires of her 
temples and oratories a golden light was 
shed on a school, an hospital, and an orphan- 



Life of St. Augustine. 99 

age. Waste places were turned into fertile 
demesnes, not for sport or gain, but for the 
promotion of Christian industry, and to sup- 
ply the wants of those reclaimed from nomad 
indigence. The mountains and the valleys 
echoed with the hymns of the perpetual ado- 
ration in the offering of "the clean oblation 
from the rising to the setting of the sun ;" 
pilgrims on the plains, coenobites in the 
woods and forest kept the round of nocturn, 
matin, and vesper prayer for a world forget- 
ting to pray for itself. Conceited heathen- 
ism dwindled down to the small dimensions 
of the Paga or village, and had to take the 
name of Paganism in its expiring hour. 
Christianity arose in the centre of the world, 
and taking the orb on which man lives for 
the measurement of its everlasting extension, 
was hailed in every clime and language with 
the magnificent name of Catholicity. All this 
was effected by the preachers who, starting 
from a cradle at Bethlehem filled with divine 
and human life, and from a grave at Calvary 
emptied of death, proclaimed that — " God, 
who at sundry times and divers manners 



ioo Life of St. Augustine. 

spoke in times past to the Fathers, in these 
last days has spoken to us by His Son Jesus 
Christ, whom He has constituted heir of all 
things." 

Thus men believed and understood that 
the religion Abraham hoped in, that David 
chanted, that Peter taught, was the same 
that Ambrose preached to the catechumens 
in Milan. And knowing that there is "one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all," the catholic travelling from the 
Tiber to the Ganges, from Britain to Car- 
thage, would be known by the same sign of 
the cross, and could converse intelligibly in 
the same catechism language. That age 
had no idea of a ruin of God's kingdom, 
which was to destroy all other kingdoms, 
itself never to be destroyed, as Isaias pre- 
dicted ; that the "light of the world" would 
be obscured ; that the breathing of the Para- 
clete would become fetid ; the stream of truth 
be muddied ; the work of wisdom shaken. 
No: such frenzied yellings are the property 
of the blaspheming denominations spewed 
out by Protestantism in modern times. The 



Life of St. Augustine. 101 

Church being the Spouse of Jesus Christ is 
one with Him, and like Him, is the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever ; consequently has 
not a primitive, a middle, or a later age, as 
idiots sometimes pretend. It is the divine 
spouse preserved without spot, or wrinkle, 
or blemish, consequently it is immaculate, 
immortal throughout all time and space. 

Augustine presented himself to the holy 
Bishop, who received him with the kindness 
of a father. "Thenceforth I began to love 
him," he says, "at first indeed not as a 
teacher of truth (which I utterly despaired of 
in the Church) but as a person kind towards 
myself." How marvellous, that a young 
man whose infancy had been cradled on the 
knees of a saintly Christian mother, should 
not even suspect that truth might be found 
in the Church of Jesus ! So strong were the 
prejudices with which heresy had inspired 
him against Christianity ! When he went to 
hear St. Ambrose explain the doctrines of 
religion to the people, it was fronv pure lite- 
rary curiosity, and to enjoy the charms of 

his eloquence. "I listened diligently to him 
9* 



102 Life of St. Augustine. 

preaching to the people, not with the intent 
I ought, but, as it were trying his eloquence, 
whether it answered to the fame thereof. 
And I hung on his words attentively, but of 
the matter I was as a careless and scornful 
looker on." " I was delighted with the grace 
of his language, which was more learned, 
more full of intrinsic value, but in delivery 
less brilliant and flattering, than that of 
Faustus. In regard to the contents, there 
was no comparison between them ; for whilst 
the latter conducted into Manichean errors, 
the former taught salvation in the surest way. 
From sinners, like I was then, salvation is 
indeed far off; yet I was gradually and un- 
consciously drawing near to it. For, although 
it was not my wish to learn what he said, 
but only to hear how he said it, — this vain 
interest was left me, who despaired of the 
truth, — still, along with the words, which I 
loved, there stole also into my spirit the 
substance, which I had no care for, because 
I could not separate the two. And whilst 
I opened my heart to receive the eloquence 
which he uttered, the truth also which he 



Life of St. Augustine, 103 

spake, found entrance, though by slow 
degrees." 

However, Augustine, having exclusively 
taken up the outward form, could not long 
forbear acknowledging that the sermons of 
St. Ambrose covered serious and solid foun- 
dation. By degrees his senseless prejudices 
against the Christian religion gave way ; he 
comprehended that Catholic belief was not 
so absurd as he had imagined, that it could 
be defended, and that the objections of the 
Manichees were not unanswerable. But 
there he stopped. The Catholic faith was not 
indeed conquered, but neither did it appear 
to him victorious. It appears incredible that 
he could be still held back by the impossi- 
bility of conceiving a purely spiritual sub- 
stance. Yet on this point he was still swayed 
by Manicheism, which clothed the spiritual 
idea of God in the garb of man. However 
his understanding definitely abandoned Mani- 
cheism, he judged that the tenets of most 
of the philosophers with regard to material 
objects were much more probable than the 
doctrine of the heretics. Therefore he re- 



104 Lifo of St. Augustine. 

solved to leave that association. The school 
of the Academics, who doubt of every thing, 
appeared alone in harmony with the state 
of his mind. But as " the saving name of 
Christ was wanting to them, ,, from which 
he could never imagine the knowledge of 
the truth separated, he resolved amidst this 
universal doubt, to remain in the class of 
catechumens, in which he had been enrolled, 
when a boy, till something certain might 
dawn upon his soul. 

But this darkened intelligence had a long 
road to traverse before it could reach the full 
light of the gospel. The idea of a Being, 
sovereignly perfect, shone in the inmost 
depth of his soul, and seized hold of his con- 
science ; but his understanding, accustomed 
to the wild imaginations of materialism, 
could not conceive any substance without 
material form. Augustine was still the slave 
of his senses and imagination. At this time 
certain books of the Platonic philosophers 
came under his observation. He read them 
eagerly, and their perusal worked the most 
salutary revolution in his mind. In them he 



Life of St. Augustine. 105 

saw that the sensible world, which he thought 
the only reality, is but the kingdom of 
shadows ; that true realities are purely intel- 
lectual, and that God, who occupies the sum- 
mit of the world of intelligence, is a pure 
Spirit, inaccessible to the senses and imagina- 
tion. It was quite a revelation to this noble 
genius, so long enslaved by matter. Quitting 
at length the world of phantoms to enter 
into that inward sanctuary where God shows 
himself, (as Plato speaks,) his soul found 
itself in finding God ; it beheld itself by the 
aid of an intelligible light superior to itself, 
a light unchangeable, identical with Truth. 
Here was the end of materialism. The mind 
of Augustine, restored to itself, was replaced 
on the true path of Christian spiritualism. 

It has been said that Plato's philosophy 
is the human preface to the Gospel. Doubt- 
less it is an incorrect and very imperfect pre- 
face, but it is a fact, that Platonism was the 
vestibule of Christianity to Augustine, as well 
as to other great intellects of the early cen- 
turies. 

The books of the Platonists had revealed 



io6 Life of St. Augustine. 

the invisible world to Augustine ; but unfor- 
tunately they had increased in him the pride 
of intellect without freeing him from the 
pride of the flesh, and this twofold pride is 
the principal obstacle to the light of faith. 
The new disciple of Plato was proud of his 
wisdom ; he did not feel that his necessities 
were infinite, he did not think of praying to 
God to supply them. Humility is the gate 
of Faith ; prayer, which is the acknowledg- 
ment of a poverty which expects every thing 
from God, is the most beautiful expression 
of humility. God wills that man, who is a 
mere creature, and moreover a fallen crea- 
ture, should confess his own insufficiency 
and implore aid from on high. This is the 
usual condition of the effusion of the super- 
natural light of Faith. Augustine was ac- 
quainted with the teaching of the Church 
on the Incarnation of the Word, and after 
he had read the neoplatonists he willingly 
believed in the Word ; but the Incarnation, 
that mystery of the love, justice and mercy 
of God, offended his egotism and his 
pride. In his eyes, Jesus Christ was the 



Life of St. Augustine. 107 

wisest of men, but he was not the "Word 
made Flesh." 

Augustine was taught two things from the 
study of St. Paul's Epistles, which he had 
not found in the books of the Platonists; the 
lost state of man, and the need of the grace 
of God to know and practise the truth. He 
comprehended the mystery of that twofold 
law, the law of the flesh and the law of the 
spirit, by the painful conflict with which his 
soul was torn. He possessed the key to 
those wonderful contradictions of which our 
nature is continually the theatre, and from 
which the Manichees drew an argument in 
favor of the absurd doctrine of two eternal 
principles — one good and the other evil — the 
respective causes of the good and evil which 
appear in us. Once convinced of the fall 
of man, and contemplating in himself the 
deadly traces of that catastrophe, Augustine 
began to comprehend the benefit of the 
Incarnation; the sentiment of his moral and 
intellectual failings inspired him with humil- 
ity; the humiliation of the Word in the mys- 
tery of the Incarnation no longer appeared to 



108 Life of St Augustine. 

him unworthy of the majesty of God. Jesus 
Christ revealed himself to his soul as the 
true and necessary restorer of fallen hu- 
manity. 

Augustine relates that, whilst reading the 
Epistles of St. Paul, he experienced senti- 
ments of humility and compunction, leading 
him to shed tears, and to confess his faults. 
He insists on this point, that humility is the 
source of true light, and repeats these words 
of Jesus Christ to his Father: "Thou hast hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, and 
hast revealed them to little ones." On the 
contrary, an abhorrence of humility is the 
cause of darkness; it was the origin of Pro- 
testantism when Satan protested against the 
sovereignty of God; it was the theme of 
the first Protestant discourse, when Satan 
undertook to reform the first members of 
the Church in Eden, by protesting against 
the authoritative teaching of heaven; and has 
always been the propagator and fundamental 
principle of all the denominations of Pro- 
testantism, from Simon Magus unto Joe 
Smith. 



Life of St. Augustine. 109 

Formerly, when a student at Carthage, 
Augustine had desired to read the Holy 
Scriptures ; but the simplicity of the sacred 
books offended the literary pride of a young 
man accustomed to the majestic style of 
Cicero, and incapable of penetrating the mys- 
terious depths of revealed doctrine ; conse- 
quently the study of these sublime pages was 
distasteful to him. Since then the Scriptures 
had not changed, but Augustine was no 
longer the same man ; his understanding had 
ripened, his prejudices against the Catholic 
religion had vanished ; the sermons and ex- 
ample of Ambrose, the prayers and tears of 
Monica, had opened his eyes, and where he 
had formerly perceived only clouds and dark- 
ness, he now discovered an admirable light. 
He saw " that all the knots of cunning mis- 
representation, which these modern betrayers 
of the Divine word had tied up, could be 
unloosed, and that for so many years he had 
been assailing, not the real faith of the 
Church, but chimeras of a carnal imagina- 
tion. " The Bible had been to him a sealed 

volume ; and such it is now, and ever will 
10 



no Life of St. Augustine. 

be to those who wilfully take it away from 
the teaching ministry appointed by our Lord, 
and drag it into the forum of the carnal 
understanding, "which perceives not the 
things of the Spirit of God," and thus fac- 
tiously constitute themselves judges over it, 
instead of surrendering themselves to it in 
humble obedience. 

Monica had crossed the sea and joined her 
son at Milan. While at sea, a storm arose 
which made the oldest tremble. But she, 
strengthened by trust in Divine protection, 
encouraged them all, and confidently pre- 
dicted a happy termination to the voyage, as 
she had been promised in a vision. She re- 
joiced to learn that Augustine had renounced 
Manicheism. What tears and prayers had 
this holy mother poured forth before the 
Lord, that the soul of her child might be 
enlightened, and that he might see clearly 
the monstrous and immoral errors of protes- 
tation against the Church, affectionately pre- 
served in Divine love without spot or wrinkle, 
or blemish. Now that God had heard her 
prayers on that point, she waited patiently 



Life of St. Augustine. in 

for Him to complete His work. She was 
convinced that she should not die till she had 
seen her son safe in the fold of the Good 
Shepherd. 

The moral and intellectual transformation 
of Augustine daily advanced. He was no 
longer tempted by the dreams of his youth, 
fortune and glory; but the flesh still held 
him captive, though the fire of passion was 
allayed. In conjunction with Alypius and 
other friends, who had left Africa in order to 
live together with Augustine "in the most 
ardent study of truth and wisdom," he re- 
solved to form a philosophical union, and 
in undisturbed retirement, with a community 
of goods, to devote himself exclusively to 
the pursuit of truth. There could not be 
much hope for this imaginary substitute for 
the vital benefits of faith and virtue, attain- 
able only in the household of Christianity. 
"Diverse thoughts," says Augustine, "were 
thus in our hearts, but thy counsel, O God, 
abides in eternity. According to that counsel, 
Thou didst laugh at ours, and work out thine 
own, to bestow on us the spirit at the set time. 



H2 Life of St. Augustine, 

Whilst the winds were blowing from every 
quarter, and tossing my heart to and fro, 
time went by, and I delayed in turning to the 
Lord, and put off living in Thee from day to 
day, and did not put off dying daily in myself. 
Desiring a life of blessedness, I shunned the 
place where it dwelt, and, flying thence, did 
seek after it." The serial construction van- 
ished, according to the inevitable fate of all 
phantastic imitations of the moral and re- 
ligious institutions in the Catholic family of 
which Christ is the head. We are moved 
to a melancholic smile, when by this incident 
in the fluttering life of Augustine we are 
reminded of the ridiculous and profane at- 
tempts of pseudo bishops, and heretical piet- 
ists, to quiz the public by such farces as " the 
protestant deaconesses," " the protestant sis- 
ters of mercy," "the protestant ritualists," 
"the protestant sisters of charity," and various 
other mountebank exhibitions in the theatres 
of heathens and publicans. 

Augustine, being sagaciously guided by 
St. Ambrose, frequently recurred to the 
study of the Holy Scriptures, and the more 



Life of St. Augustine. 1 1 3 

clearly he apprehended their admonitions, the 
more sincerely he desired salvation through 
Jesus Christ. With great eagerness he read 
the epistles of St. Paul. Here he found the 
testimonies of the Scriptures so admirably 
set forth as to produce the harmony which 
is one of the chiefest evidences of the divine 
truth of the volume. Here he was made 
to understand that which he had long felt, 
that he had "a law in his members warring 
against the law in his mind, and that nothing 
could deliver him from his body of death 
but the grace of Jesus Christ." He per- 
ceived an infinite difference between the doc- 
trine of him who styled himself the last of 
the Apostles, and that of the proud philoso- 
phers who esteemed themselves the wisest of 
men. "On their pages," he says, "no traces 
of piety like this can be discovered; tears 
of penitence, thy sacrifice, the broken spirit, 
the humble and the contrite heart, the heal- 
ing of the nations, the Bride, the City of God, 
the cup of our salvation. No one sings there, 
'Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from Him 

cometh my salvation. He only is my rock 

10* 



1 1 4 Life of St. Augustine. 

and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall 
not be greatly moved.' (Psalm lxii.) There 
no one hears the invitation, 'Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest.' (Matt, xi.) They (the 
philosophers) disdain to learn of Him who 
is meek and lowly in heart; they cannot 
imagine why the lowly should teach the 
lowly, nor understand what is meant by His 
taking the form of a servant. For thou hast 
hidden it from the wise and prudent, and 
revealed it unto babes. It is one thing to see 
afar off, from the summit of a woody moun- 
tain, the fatherland of peace, and, without 
any path leading thither, to wander around, 
lost and weary, among by-ways, haunted by 
lions and dragons that lurk in ambush for 
their prey — and quite another to keep safely 
on a road that leads thither, guarded by the 
care of the celestial Captain, where no rob- 
bers, who have forsaken the heavenly army, 
ever lie in wait This made such a wonder- 
ful impression on my spirit, when I read the 
humblest of thine apostles, and considered 
thy works, and saw the depths ol sin." 



Life of St Augustine, 115 

The improved study of the sacred writings, 
and his frequent attendance at the preaching 
of St. Ambrose, theoretically convinced Au- 
gustine of the truths of the Holy Catholic 
Church, but practically he had yet to undergo 
in bitter experience the judgment of St. 
Paul — "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, 
and the spirit against the flesh. ,, In his 
usual pathetic language he describes this 
harassing conflict. "The world lost its charms 
before thy sweetness and before the glory 
of thy house, which I had learned to love, 
but I was yet bound by strong ties to the 
flesh. I had found the beautiful pearl ; I 
should have sold all I possessed to buy it, 
and yet I hesitated." At this juncture he 
sought a venerable priest, Simplician, the 
spiritual father of Ambrose. This holy man, 
very advanced in years, served God with 
great piety from his youth, had been sent by 
pope Damasus from Rome, to be instructor 
and director of St. Ambrose. To him Au- 
gustine opened his mind, related his wander- 
ings and errors ; and mentioned particularly 
his reading the writings of Platonic philoso- 



1 1 6 Life of St. Augustine. 

phers, translated by Victorinus, who had been 
formerly a distinguished professor of rhetoric 
in Rome. Simplician spoke approvingly of 
those books ; then related to him the conver- 
sion of Victorinus, who taught many of the 
Roman senators ; had been honored by the 
erection of his statue in the Forum ; passed 
from the Platonic philosophy to the instruc- 
tions of the Church, and through his own 
ministry had embraced the faith of Christ. 
Victorinus, fearing the abandonment of influ- 
ential friends, and apprehensive of malicious 
annoyances, deferred his baptism, flattering 
himself with the notion that he could be a 
Christian without joining the Church. When 
Simplicianus told him, "I will not count you 
a Christian before I see you in the Church," 
Victorinus asked with a smile, " Do the walls, 
then, make Christians?" He soon was con- 
vinced, that he who does not "confess Christ 
before men, will not be confessed by Him 
before the Father who is in heaven ;" and 
therefore he cast aside every worldly obstacle 
and was baptized. When Julian the apos- 
tate forbade Christians to teach the sciences, 



Life of SL Augustine, 1 1 7 

Victorinus joyously quitted his eminent and 
lucrative employment, feeling honored and 
enriched by his faith in Christ. Augustine 
was greatly affected by this edifying example: 
he admired the bravery, and still much more 
esteemed the happiness of Victorinus ; but 
had not yet the resolution to win the same 
advantages. " I was bound," he says, " not 
with another's irons, but by my own iron 
will. My will the enemy held, and thence 
had made a chain for me, and bound me. 
For of a forward will was a lust made; and 
a lust served became custom ; and custom 
not resisted became necessity." Augustine 
has depicted in the liveliest colors this griev- 
ous combat, in which his salvation was at 
stake. He compares his condition to a man 
overpowered by sleep, who wishes to rise, 
but when he makes the effort, the drowsiness 
so pleases him that he yields to the laziness 
and falls back into the oppressive slumber. 
To the warning voice of reason, "Wake, thou 
that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and 
Christ shall give thee light" — he could only 
reply — " Presently, by and by; let me alone 



n8 



Life of St. Augustine. 



a little while." But this " presently " did not 
come quickly, procrastination took its place. 
In vain the inward man delighted in the law 
of God, for another law in his members 
warred against the law of his mind and 
Drought him into captivity to the law of sin. 
The conflict grew more intense ; it raged 
wildly between nature and grace, between 
the flesh and false reason, against conscience, 
and pleadings of the Divine Spirit leading 
him to better things. 




CHAPTER VII. 

Augustine's struggles — Visitations of Geace — Conversion — 
Affecting narrative. 

fUGUSTINE'S health was so impaired by 
this mental disturbance, and aching of 
the heart, that his spirit drooped in mel- 
ancholy and despondency. As he sat one 
day in a downcast mood, with his dear and 
ever-faithful friend Alypius, their friend and 
countryman, Pontianus, an officer of the impe- 
rial court, and a very religious man, came to 
visit them. Finding the epistles of St. Paul 
lying on the table, he availed himself of the 
favorable occasion to speak of St. Antony, 
the Egyptian hermit, who, in literal pursu- 
ance of the Saviour's advice, had given up 
all his property to the poor, in order to live 
to the Lord, unrestrained and undisturbed 
in solitude, and there to work out the sal- 
vation of his soul. They were astonished to 

i.i 9 



120 Life of St. Augustine. 

hear of such wonderful things in the Catholic 
Church, and were equally surprised by the 
information that at the moment there was 
a monastery near the city where they lived, 
under the care of the Archbishop, where all 
the precepts and counsels of the gospel were 
practised with heroic virtue, by a numerous 
family of servants of the Divine Master. . 
Some of the malignants, who are heedless 
about anachorisms and paradoxes, when 
Catholicity is being reviled, would be in- 
clined to swear that Pontianus was a Jesuit 
in disguise, because, finding his erring friends 
interested by his narrative, "he improved 
the occasion," which means "Jesuitical" in 
English dictionaries. Accordingly, he related 
that when he was with the court at Treves, 
two of his companions, during an evening 
walk visited the dwelling of some religious 
persons, there found the life of the holy 
man Antony, written by St. Athanasius, 
and one of them commenced reading the 
book. Whilst reading, he became moved 
with love and zeal for the cultivation of 
gospel perfection, and said to his companion: 



Life of St. Augustine. 121 

"Tell me, with all our painstaking, what doth 

our ambition aspire to? what is it we seek? 

Can we hope for more in the court than to 

gain the favor of the emperor? Yet when 

this is obtained, what is there in it that is 

not brittle, dangerous, and transient? But 

behold! if I please, I may at this moment 

become the friend of God, and remain such 

forever." As he continued to read, his soul 

was moved by the throes of a new life, his 

heart turned from worldly attachments; he 

sighed with every word he read; his soul 

was entirely affected by divine grace, and 

at length he firmly resolved to pursue the 

course of perfect religion. "I have now," 

he said to his friend, "bid adieu to our former 

hope, and I am firmly resolved on pursuing 

only the service of God. I begin at this very 

hour, and from this very place. If you will 

not follow my retreat, do not obstruct my 

resolution." The friend answered, that he 

would be ever united with his companion 

in such a noble enterprise, and for so great 

a reward. They resigned their commissions 

in the army, took leave of the world, conse- 
11 



122 Life of St. Augustine. 

crated themselves to God; the young ladies 
to whom they were engaged did likewise, 
binding themselves by the vows of the re- 
ligious state. The example was exactly cal- 
culated to excite the grand spirit, and natu- 
rally generous disposition of Augustine. His 
conscience reproached him for mean imbe- 
cility, and many moral deformities which 
debased and dishonored him. With keen 
remorse he reflected that those young men 
heard the call of the Lord only once, and 
obeyed it immediately. And he! It was 
now more than twelve years since the "Hor- 
tensius" of Cicero had stirred him up so 
powerfully to search after truth, and ever 
clearer and clearer the voice of the Good 
Shepherd had sounded in his ears; and yet 
his will rebelled; he was never ready to 
renounce the world wholly, but desired to 
retain at least some of its pleasures. 

When Pontitianus left the house, the tem- 
pest raged more violently in the sorrow- 
stricken soul of Augustine, and like the foam- 
ing on the waves of a stormy sea, his agita- 
tion was exhibited in words and gestures, 



Life of St. Augustine, 123 

and every feature of his countenance. To 
Alypius he turned, exclaiming: "What are we 
doing who thus suffer the unlearned to start 
up and seize heaven by force, whilst we, with 
all our knowledge, remain behind cowardly 
and heartless, wallowing in the mire ? Shall 
we be ashamed to follow them, because they 
have gone before, and not ashamed not to 
follow them at all ?" 

Augustine has left us a picture of the last 
crisis through which his soul passed before 
breaking its chains. It is a marvellously 
touching scene. After addressing his friend 
with such an unusual tone, and with such an 
altered countenance, he snatched the Epistles 
of St. Paul and rushed into the garden, to 
seek silent and solitary communion with God, 
for now "it was" as he said, "despair or sal- 
vation, death or life." Alypius, from whom 
he had no secrets, followed him. "We re- 
moved as far as possible from the house. I 
groaned in spirit, full of stormy indignation, 
that I had not entered into covenant and 
union with Thee, my God ; and all my bones 
cried out, 'Thither must thou go!' But it 



124 Life of St. Augustine. 

was not possible to go by ship, or wagon, 
or on foot, as we go to any spot we please. 
For going thither and coming, there is no- 
thing else than to will to go thither, and to 
will with full power; not to waver and be 
tossed to and fro with a divided will, which 
now rises up, and now sinks down in the 
struggle." He was enraged at himself on 
account of the fickleness of his will, and the 
incompleteness of the detestation of evil. " I 
would, and I would not; I was, as it were, 
divided between myself and myself; I shook 
my chain with which I was fettered, but could 
not be released from it. Thou, O Lord, con- 
tinuedst to press sore upon me in my inte- 
rior, with a severe mercy, redoubling the 
stripes of fear and shame, lest I should leave 
off struggling, and my chain should grow 
again, and bind me faster than ever. I said 
within myself, ' Come, let it now be ; let it be 
done this moment.' Neither yet did I do it 
quite, demurring still awhile, to die unto 
death, and live unto life. Trifles of trifles, 
and vanities, my old mistresses, hung about 
me, and pulling me by the garment of the 



Life of St. Augustine. 125 

flesh, softly whispered to me, 'Wilt thou 
then forsake us? From this moment shall 
we be no more with thee forever ? Wilt thou 
never hereafter taste those delights ?' But 
the chaste dignity of continency enticed me 
to come forward, and to encourage me to 
fear nothing, stretched forth to embrace me, 
her loving arms full of crowds of good exam- 
ples. There were great numbers of boys 
and girls, young men and maidens, grave 
widows, and old women, virgins, persons of 
all ages, and in all these continency was the 
fruitful mother of chaste delights from Thee, 
O Lord, her heavenly bridegroom. And she 
laughed at me, with a kind of derision, by 
way of drawing me on, as if she had said, 
'And art not thou able to do what these men 
and these maidens do? or are these able in 
themselves, and not in the Lord their God ? 
He gave me to them. Why standest thou 
upon thyself, and therefore dost not stand ? 
Throw thyself upon him, and fear nothing. 
He will receive and will heal thee.'" 

When deep consideration had gathered all 

his misery before his view, a darkling storm 
11* 



126 Life of St. Augustine. 

lowered over his spirit, and he felt the need 
of tears. Unwilling to disturb Alypius, he 
withdrew to a distance, and there prostrate 
on the ground, beneath a fig tree, he shed 
tears like unto the drops from a tempest- 
riven cloud. At the same moment the con- 
vulsion of his troubled soul gave vent in wail- 
ing supplications, in groaning and sighs. He 
exclaimed: "How long? how long? To- 
morrow, to-morrow! Why not now? Why 
not in this hour put an end to my shame ?." 
Thus he prayed, struggled, sobbing like the 
moaning of an exhausted storm ; when a 
voice floated through the air, like the voice 
of a young boy or girl chanting, and often 
repeating these Latin words : " Tolle lege ; 
Tolle lege!" i. e., "Take and read, take and 
read !" Instantly Augustine became quite 
an altered man. "J checked the torrent of 
tears ; I arose, interpreting it to be no other 
than a command of God to open the Book 
and read the first chapter I would find. For 
I had heard of Antony, that coming in during 
the reading of the Gospel, he received the 
admonition, as if what was read had been 



Life of St. Augustine. 127 

spoken to him : " Go sell what thou hast, and 
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 
in heaven ; and come follow me." Eagerly 
he returned to the place where Alypius was 
sitting, there lay the volume of St. Paul's 
epistles. He seized it, opened, and read the 
sentence which first met his eyes : " Let us 
walk honestly, as in the day ; not in rioting 
and drunkenness, not in chambering and wan- 
tonness, not in strife and envying. But put 
ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not 
provision for the flesh in its concupiscence." 
Instantly a serene light beamed through his 
soul, the gloom of perplexity and despond- 
ency passed away like the fringe of night- 
shades melting from the horizon under the 
dawn of day. He marked the passage he 
had read, closed the volume, and with calm 
countenance informed his friend what had 
happened. Alypius read the passage indi- 
cated, and proceeded to read what followed : 
" Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye," 
which he applied to himself as a warning. 

By this admonition the true and constant 
friend was strengthened in good resolutions 



128 Life of St. Augustine. 

corresponding to his amiable character, and 
he joined his esteemed associate. Then they 
hastened to communicate the happy tidings 
to St. Monica. Well might this holy mother 
triumph and rejoice ; her tears and supplica- 
tions were accepted by her beloved, adorable 
Saviour, all her desire was accomplished. 
She rejoiced, she cried aloud with exultation, 
she poured out liked a flame the gratitude 
of her heart, in thanksgiving for the fulfil- 
ment of the prophecy, " the child of her tears 
would not perish." Vigorous souls do no- 
thing by halves. From the moment that 
Augustine, yielding to the attraction of grace, 
had said, "I believe," he gave himself wholly 
to truth ; the most austere practices of the 
Christian religion alone appeared to satisfy 
the ardor of his generous will. This man, 
who but yesterday could not comprehend 
the possibility of living if deprived of carnal 
pleasures, now determined to sacrifice even 
lawful indulgence, and to live in perpetual 
chastity. He poured forth his heart in 
humble thanksgiving and holy joy before 
God, who had mercifully broken the chains 



Life of St. Augustine, 129 

of his slavery. " How sweet," he exclaimed 
on a sudden, "was it to be without the charm 
of those toys ! and what I was before so 
much afraid to lose, I now cast from me with 
joy. For thou hast expelled them from me, 
who art the true and sovereign sweetness : 
thou expelledst them, and earnest in thyself 
instead of them, sweeter than any pleasure 
whatever, but not to flesh and blood; brighter 
than any light whatever, but more interior 
than secret ; higher than any dignity what- 
ever, but not to those that are high in their 
own conceit. Now, was my mind free from 
the gnawing cares of the ambition of honor, 
of the acquisition of riches and of weltering 
in pleasures. And my infant tongue began 
to lisp to thee, my Lord God, my true honor, 
my riches, and my salvation." 

In the admiration of this wonderful con- 
version he properly said : "All, who worship 
Thee, must, when they hear this, cry out, 
Blessed be the Lord in heaven and on earth, 
great and wonderful is his name !" He is 
risen from the dead. Light breaks in upon 
his darkness. His heart, which was lately 



130 Life of St. Augustine. 

dull and heavy within him, now glows with 
the fervor of devotion. Impenetrable to a 
religious sentiment as the clod, before his 
reanimation, he now trembles with the sen- 
sibility of affectionate and reverential piety. 
His soul rises from its slumber, feels new life, 
new powers, new spirit, and on the wings 
of faith soars to the bosom of Divinity. 
Heaven rejoices over the returned prodigal, 
and sheds its all-enlivening influence in show- 
ers of grace, to encourage his progress in the 
path that leads to happiness and glory. 

In the process of the Good Shepherd's 
quest for this wanderer from the fold, we 
must adore the power of Divine grace, and 
trust in Him "who so loved the world that 
He gave His only begotten Son for our sal- 
vation." The victory indeed over evil habits 
is not obtained without much sorrow, pain 
and contradiction to corrupt nature ; yet the 
sinner may be courageous, for " the sorrow 
of those who believe in Jesus will be turned 
into joy." 

The conversion of Augustine occurred in 
September of the year 386, the thirty-second 



Life of St. Augustine. 131 

of his age. At the same time he determined 
to resign his office, and to quit his profes- 
sional pursuits; but deferred the execution 
of his resolution till the autumnal vacation. 
He vowed to consecrate himself wholly to 
the Divine service, in obedience not only to 
the commandments of the law, but accord- 
ing to the counsel of Christ, "Go and sell 
all your goods, and follow me." He would 
not allow any delay. He retired to a country 
house at Cassiacum, near Milan, which be- 
longed to a friend, Vereeundus, then a hea- 
then, but afterwards baptized. He was 
accompanied in his retreat by his mother 
St. Monica, his brother Navigius, his son 
Adeodatus, Alypius his chief confident, Tri- 
getius and Licentius, two of his scholars, and 
his cousins Lastidianus and Rusticus. He 
passed several months in this abode of piety 
and social friendship, preparing for the holy 
sacrament of baptism. Here he labored, by 
"prayer and fasting," to cast out the evil 
lurking in natural passions, and to purify 
his affections from any alloy that might check 
the free and abundant stream of Divine love. 



132 Life of St. Augustine, 

He wept over the miseries of his soul, not 
as in the days of his infidelity, in the alarm 
of despondency, but in the reverential trem- 
bling of filial awe, and so often he implored 
the succor of the sweet Redeemer. "My 
whole hope is in nothing else but in thy 
exceeding great mercy, O Lord, my God. 
Thou commandest me continency; give me 
what Thou commandest, and command what 
Thou wilt. I know that no man can be con- 
tinent unless God give it." The deep earn- 
estness of his desire to repair the damages 
of past wanderings from the way of virtue 
is expressed in fervid addresses to heaven. 
"Too late have I loved Thee. Thou wast 
with me, and I was not with Thee. Thou 
hast called, Thou hast cried out, and hast 
pierced my deafness. Thou hast touched 
me, and I am all inflamed with the desire 
of thy embraces. O, love which always 
burnest, and art never extinguished, set me 
all on fire." 

If in the foaming eddies of sinning, unre- 
generated nature, the proper motto for his 
condition was : " My heart is uneasy until 



Life of St. Augustine. 133 

it rests in Thee, O Lord," after his conversion 
the flaming heart pierced with an arrow 
became, in Christian art, the fitting emblem 
for the great soul which being once pene- 
trated by Divine grace ever after burned 
with the love of God. He had asked the 
advice of St. Ambrose as to what parts of 
the Scripture he ought to study in his pecu- 
liar circumstances. The bishop recommended 
the prophecies of Isaiah ; but as Augustine 
could not then properly appreciate them, he 
selected the Psalms, and found there just 
what he desired. His literary taste was 
charmed by the chaste poetry of the inspired 
bard. It is, as Augustine wished to find 
it, purely devoted to God. It strips away 
the curtains of the skies, and approaches 
boldly, but meekly, into the presence of Him 
who dwells in boundless and inaccessible 
majesty. It there lays down its tribute. It 
carries up constant offerings, selected from 
the hills and vales of Palestine, the land of 
vineyards and olive gardens, of springs and 
fountains. Over all is cast a sedate and 

subdued reverence, that awes the mind into 

12 



134 Life of St. Augustine. 

adoration, or melts it down to the tender- 
ness of prayer. The sacred volume was now 
to Augustine "an open Bible," as it is only 
for those who have it opened by the Para- 
clete in the Church ; therefore he would no 
longer listen to the harps of Mantua warbling 
about gods, and battles, and nature. He had 
now a holier music, which flowed fast by the 
oracle of God, when blessed men touched 
the harp, and unseen angels enwreathed their 
fingers, to make melody on its strings. Dur- 
ing long hours of the night he meditated on 
the sacred verses, drawing thence a kind 
of concerted music, in lowly wailings of peni- 
tence, or exultant praises and benedictions. 
He censured and mourned over the blind 
and miserable Manichees, who deprived them- 
selves of the advantages of those holy hymns. 
" I wished only," he once thought, " they 
could have been in my neighborhood without 
my knowing it, and could have seen my face 
and have heard my voice, when in that 
retirement I read the fourth Psalm, and how 
that Psalm wrought upon me." 

He resorted with his companions, in good 



Life of St. Augustine. 135 

weather, to the shade of a large tree, at 
other times to the halls of the baths belong- 
ing to the villa, and, walking up and down, 
delivered discourses on those philosophical 
subjects which stood in the nearest relation 
to the most weighty practical interests of the 
heart, such as the knowledge of the truth, 
the idea of genuine wisdom, the life of 
blessedness, and the way to it. These dis- 
courses were written down, and thus the 
earliest works of the great Doctor, mostly 
philosophical in their contents, took their rise. 
Of these the most important are, first, three 
books against the sceptical school of the 
Academies, which denied the possibility of 
knowing the truth. In opposition, it was 
shown that scepticism either abrogates itself, 
or, in a modified form, as a scheme of proba- 
bilities, bears witness to the existence of 
truth ; for the probable must presuppose the 
true. Not the mere striving after truth, only 
the possession of it, can render happy. But 
it is only to be found in God, since he alone 
is happy who is in God and God in him. 
And, second, the treatise on the "Life of 



136 Life of St. Augustine . 

Blessedness," in which these latter thoughts 
are further developed. At last, his Solilo- 
quies or Discourses with his own soul, con- 
cerning God, concerning the highest good, 
concerning his own nature, immortality and 
the like. A quotation from these, showing 
the state of his mind at that time, is deeply 
interesting. 

"O God, Creator of the world," thus he 
prayed to the Lord, "grant me first all grace 
to call upon Thee, in a manner well pleasing 
to Thee, that I may so conduct myself that 
Thou mayest hear, and then help me. Thou 
God, through whom all, that cannot be of 
itself, rises into being; who even dost not suf- 
fer to fall into destruction what would destroy 
itself; who never workest evil, and rulest 
over the power of evil; who revealest unto 
the few, who seek after a true existence, that 
evil can be overcome; God, to whom the 
universe, in spite of evil, is perfect; God 
whom what can love, loves consciously or 
unconsciously; God, in whom all is, and 
whom neither the infamy of the creature can 
disgrace, nor his wickedness defile, nor his 



Life of St. Augustine. 137 

error lead astray; God, who hast preserved 
the knowledge of the truth for the pure 
alone; Father of truth, Father of wisdom, 
Father of true and perfect life, Father of 
blessedness, Father of the good and the 
beautiful, Father of our awakening and en- 
lightening, Father of the promise by which 
we are encouraged to return to Thee; I 
invoke Thee, O Truth, in which and from 
which and by which all is wise that is wise; 
O true and most perfect Life, in which and 
from which and by which all is blessed that 
is blessed; O Beauty and Goodness, in which 
and by which all is good and beautiful; O, 
Spiritual Light, in which and from which 
and by which all is spiritually light that is 
spiritually light; God, from whom to turn 
away is to fall, to whom to turn again is 
to rise, in whom to remain is to endure; God, 
from whom to withdraw is to die, to whom 
to return is to live again, in whom to dwell 
is to live; O God, Thou dost sanctify and 
prepare us for an everlasting inheritance, 
bow down Thyself to me in pity! Come to 
my help, Thou one, eternal, true Essence, 



138 Life of St, Augustine, 

in whom there is no discord, no confusion, 
no change, no need, no death, but the highest 
unity, the highest purity, the highest dura- 
bility, the highest fulness, the highest life. 
Hear, hear, hear me, my God, my Lord, my 
King, my Father, my Hope, my Desire, my 
Glory, my Habitation, my Home, my Salva- 
tion, my Light, my Life; hear, hear, hear 
me as Thou art wont to hear Thy chosen! 
Already, I love Thee alone, follow Thee 
alone, seek Thee alone, am prepared to 
serve Thee only, because Thou alone rulest 
in righteousness. O, command and order 
what Thou wilt, but heal and open my ears, 
that I may hear Thy word; heal and open 
my eyes, that I may see Thy nod; drive out 
my delusion, that I may recognize Thee 
again. O gracious Father, take back again 
thy wanderer. Have I not been chastised 
enough? Have I not long enough served 
thine enemies, whom Thou hast under thy 
feet — long enough been the sport of decep- 
tion? Receive me as thy servant, for I fly 
from those who received me as a stranger, 
when I fled from Thee. Increase in me faith, 



Life of St. Augustine. 139 

hope, love, according to thy wonderful and 
inimitable goodness. I desire to come to 
Thee, and again implore Thee for that by 
which I may come. For where Thou for- 
sakest, there is destruction; but Thou dost 
not forsake, because Thou art the highest 
Good, which every one who seeks aright will 
surely find. But he seeks it aright, to whom 
Thou hast given power to seek aright. 
Grant me power, O Father, to seek Thee 
aright! Shield me from error! Let me not, 
when I seek, find another in thy stead. I 
desire none other but Thee. O let me yet 
find Thee, my Father! But such a desire 
is vain, since Thou thyself canst purify me, 
and fit me to behold Thee. Whatever else 
the welfare of my mortal body may need, 
I commit into thy hands, most wise and 
gracious Father, as long as I do not know 
what may be good for me, or those whom 
I love; and will therefore, just as Thou wilt, 
make it known at the time; only this I be- 
seech, out of thy great mercy, that Thou wilt 
convert me wholly to Thyself, and when I 
obtain Thee, suffer me to be nothing else; 



140 Life of St. Augustine. 

and grant also as long as I live, and bear 
about this body, I may be pure and mag- 
nanimous, just and wise, filled with love and 
the knowledge of thy wisdom, and worthy 
of an entrance into thy blessed kingdom." 

In his conferences with his friends, the 
main design was to raise their thoughts in 
all their studies from sensible to spiritual 
things. In a literary disputation, Trigetius 
advanced something that did him no honor, 
and he desired that it might not be com- 
mitted to writing. Licentius, his antagonist, 
insisted on having it recorded, so that it 
might appear as a monument of his victory. 
Augustine shed tears, seeing them still en- 
slaved by the petty passion of vanity, and 
reproved them for their fault, praying that 
God would heal this wound of their hearts. 
The two youths entreated that the whole 
contest should be recorded, each desiring 
this for his own confusion. 




CHAPTER VIII. 



Preparation for Baptism — Literary activity — Christianity 
makes Augustine superior to Plato — His Baptism — The 
grandeur and beauty of the new llfe — homeward 
journey to Africa — St. Monica's Death — Charming and 
edifying scenes. 

HE time being come when his name 
should be entered among the "Compe- 
tentes" in order to prepare himself for 
baptism, he came to Milan in the beginning 
of Lent 387. He was all through his event- 
ful life greatly distinguished by literary activ- 
ity; along with his preparation for baptism, 
he was employed in writing several admir- 
able volumes. He portrayed the different 
steps of human knowledge by which he 
himself had been gradually led to absolute 
knowledge, for the purpose of leading others 
to the sanctuary ; and wrote works on gram- 
mar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, 
philosophy, music, and on the immortality of 

141 



142 Life of St. Augustine. 

the soul. It would be rash to say what the 
genius of Augustine might have become had 
it not bent before the authority of the 
Church ; none can dare maintain that the 
Catholic Faith was an obstacle to the de- 
velopment of this powerful intellect. It is 
true, it is incontestable that faith was at once 
a marvellous light and a wonderful moral 
power to this great mind. Faith opened^to 
him horizons absolutely new, suffered him 
freely to use his wings and to traverse w T ith 
incomparable ease and security those regions 
in which human reason is naturally called to 
exercise itself. To understand how far Faith 
restores, enlarges, elevates reason, we may 
open the works of Plato and of Augustine. 
Whilst we glance over the writings of 
these two immortal minds, we will be struck 
by the eminent doctrinal superiority of the 
Christian Doctor over the Prince of Grecian 
Philosophers. First, all the truths which are 
in Plato are to be found in Augustine, but 
with a purity, a clearness, a firmness, a pleni- 
tude, which we vainly seek in the Athenian 
philosopher. Plato's view is frequently ob- 



Life of St. Augustine. 143 

scured, even on the ground of natural religion, 
in matters which are within the province 
of reason ; he sees but a part of the truth, 
he mixes error with it, and almost always is 
deficient in solidity, even on those points 
which he seems best to understand. And 
yet every one is agreed that mere human 
reason never had a more intelligent, more 
luminous, more complete interpreter than the 
disciple of Socrates. Plato is indisputably 
the noblest and most exalted representative 
of reason devoid of the light of Faith. But 
reason, how high soever it may soar, is full 
of obscurity and subject to a thousand weak- 
nesses, even in that part of the moral and 
religious domain which naturally falls to it. 
Reason has lost its uprightness, and needs 
the renovating grace of Faith in order to 
regain it and exercise its full power. To 
Faith, Augustine owes his incomparable 
superiority to the master of the Academy 
on all great questions of the rational and 
strictly philosophical order. 

The long desired and happy hour of re- 
generation arrived. Augustine w T as baptized 



144 Life of St. Augustine. 

by the illustrious St. Ambrose on Easter-eve 
in the year 3&J, in company with his friend 
Alypius, and his son Adeodatus, who was 
now fifteen years of age, and being pre- 
served from the contamination of iniquity, 
had surrendered to the Lord his youthful 
soul with all its rare endowments. Augus- 
tine may now be congratulated by the saintly 
Monica, and all his faithful friends. He is 
risen from the dead. Light is broken in 
upon his darkness. Faith grows up in his 
mind. The veil is withdrawn from his heart, 
and that which was lately dull and heavy 
within him, now glows with the fervor of 
devotion. The darkness and shadows that 
long hung over his spirit pass away, and the 
soil into which the seed of a new life had 
been cast, and had been so abundantly 
watered by the tears of repentance, now 
warmed by the Sun of Righteousness, shoots 
forth an abundant crop of virtue. His winter 
is passed, and in the spring-time of spiritual 
life, his soul rises from its slumber, feels 
new life, new powers, and on wings of hope 
and charity soars to the ccelestial domain. 



Life of St. Augustine. 145 

Heaven rejoices over the repenting sinner, 
and sheds its all-enlivening influence in 
showers of grace, to encourage his progress 
in the path that leads to happiness and 
glory. A soul is saved ; angels rejoice, and 
ministering spirits around the throne sing in 
their sweetest strain their hymns of praise 
unto "Him who wisheth not the death of a 
sinner, but rather that he be converted and 
live." 

He was much moved by the holy sacra- 
mental act, and the succeeding festivals of 
Easter and Whitsuntide, in which the Church 
entered her spiritual spring, and basked in 
the warm sunlight of a Saviour risen from 
the dead, and always present in a "bread 
which is His flesh, which is meat indeed, 
which He gives for the life of the world," 
excited his soul with extraordinary and deli- 
cious emotions. It would appear that cir- 
cumstances providentially cooperated to en- 
liven the new raptures of his soul ; just at 
the time of his baptism the relics of the mar- 
tyred saints Gervasius and Protasius were 
discovered, and when conveyed into the 

13 



1 46 Life of St. Augusti 



ine. 



Cathedral of Milan, wrought there an aston- 
ishing miracle in support of the holy catholic 
faith. 

The soul of Augustine was affected with 
tender devotion by this actual fulfilment of 
the design of the Founder of the Church, that 
" signs should follow the preaching of the 
gospel." He also joyously contemplated this 
event as a palpable exhibition of the charac- 
ter of sanctity illustrating the Church. The 
adversaries of religion generally entertain 
a theory about the dull dreariness which is 
supposed to depress the pious and obedient 
family of the faith. But Augustine practically 
experienced the truth of the scripture which 
says, " Beati qui habitant in domo Domini" 
whenever he attended the services of the 
sanctuary. Then his soul was really by 
"music lifted to heaven" through the Church 
hymns which St. Ambrose had introduced 
into his diocese. Like the inspired bard of 
Sion, the truths of religion in the waves of 
melody gave him a foretaste of the cheerful 
life when " sorrow and mourning and death 
shall be no more." " I could not," says Au- 



Life of- St. Augustine. 147 

gustine, " satisfy myself in those days with 
the wonderful dehVht of meditating on the 
depth of thy Divine counsel in the salvation 
of the human race. How have I wept amid 
thy hymns and chants, powerfully moved 
by the sweetly sounding voice of thy Church ! 
Those tones poured into my ear ; the truth 
dropped into my heart, and kindled there the 
fire of devotion; tears ran down my cheeks 
in the fulness of my joy. This peculiar rap- 
ture and elevation of the grand genius of 
Augustine seems to corroborate the tradition 
which says that the magnificent anthem, Te 
Deum Laudamus, which is worthy of a place 
among David's Psalms of thanksgiving, was 
composed by Ambrose and Augustine jointly, 
during the baptism of the latter, as by inspi- 
ration from above, each singing in response 
verse after verse. 

Soon after his baptism Augustine resolved 
to return to Africa, in order to devote him- 
self to a life of divine contemplation and 
religious exercise, in retirement and prayer. 
Accordingly he entered on his homeward 
journey in the summer of 387, together with 



148 Life of St. Augustine. 

his mother and several of his friends, among 
whom was Evadius of Tagestum, a cultivated 
man, who was baptized a short time before, 
and now forsook the imperial court to live 
in like manner, exclusively for the service 
and the rewards of the heavenly kingdom. 
From Milan tiiey travelled to Rome, thence 
to Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, a day's 
journey from Rome, where they prepared to 
embark. The time of visitation from Jesus, 
whom Monica loved so well, arrived, — the 
hymn which angels sung at the conversion 
of Augustine turned into the jubilant canticle, 
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant:'' 
the eyes that fondly gazed on the beauteous 
flower of Christian odor which maternal 
tears had nourished, were raised confidently 
to Him who repays an hundred-fold ; and out 
of the Sacred Heart flashed the fire which 
dissolved the earthly tenement of Monica, 
changing the clothing of mortality into a gar- 
ment of immortality. 

The death of the just is so truly precious, 
that it brings to view a scene really fascinat- 
ing for devout meditation. Such was the 



Life of St. Augustine. 149 

case when St. Monica died at Ostia Tiberina. 
On the eve of the intended embarkation, 
Augustine sat with his mother at a window 
which overlooked the sea; the rays of the 
setting sun were touching from the horizon 
the home so dear to them through memories 
most affecting, and they conversed about the 
pleasant and happy mansion, which no eye 
has seen, no ear heard, but which our Father 
in heaven has prepared for them that love 
Him. The most fitting narrative we hear 
from Augustine. 

"Forgetting the past, and looking only 
toward the future, we asked ourselves, in the 
presence of Truth, as Thou art, what the 
eternal life of the saints will be. And we 
opened longingly the mouths of our hearts 
to receive, the celestial overflowing of thy 
fountain — the fountain of life that is with 
Thee, that, being bedewed from it accord- 
ing to our capacity, we might meditate care- 
fully upon this solemn subject. When now 
our discourse had reached that point, that 
no pleasure of corporal sense, regarded 
in what brilliant light soever, durst for "a 

13* 



150 Life of St. Augustine. 

moment be named with the glory of that 
life, much less compared with it, we mounted 
upward in ardent longings, and wandered 
step by step through all the material uni- 
verse, the heavens, from which sun, moon, 
and stars beam down upon the earth. And 
we rose higher in inward thought, discourse 
and admiration of thy wonderful works; and, 
going in spirit, we rose above these also, 
in order to reach yon sphere of inexhaustible 
fulness, where Thou dost feed Israel to all 
eternity upon the pasture of Truth, where 
Life is and Truth, by which all was made 
that was there and will be; but it itself was 
not made; it is as it was, and always will 
be; for to have been, and to be, are not in it, 
but being, because it is eternal; for to have 
been, and to be, are not eternal. Whilst we 
were thus talking and desiring, we touched 
it gently in full rapture of heart, and left 
bound there the first fruits of the Spirit, and 
turned again to the sound of our lips, where 
the word begins and ends. And what is like 
thy word, our Lord, who remains unchanged 
in- Himself, and renews all? We spake thus: 



Life of St. Augustine. 151 

'If the tumult of the flesh were silent, and 
the images of earth, sea and air were silent, 
and the poles were silent, and the soul itself 
were silent, transcending its own thoughts; 
if dreams, and the revelations of fancy, and 
every language, and every sign, and every- 
thing represented by them were silent; if all 
were silent, for to him who hears, all these 
say, We have not made ourselves, but He 
who made us dwells in eternity; if, at this 
call, they were now silent, with ear uplifted 
to their Creator, and He should speak alone, 
not by them, but unmediated, so that we 
heard his own word, not through a tongue 
of flesh, not through the voice of an angel, 
not through the war of thunder, not through 
the dark outlines of a similitude, but from 
Him himself, whom we love in them, and 
whom without them we heard as we now 
mounted, and with the rapid flight of thought 
touched the eternal Truth that lies beyond 
them all; if this contemplation should con- 
tinue, and no other foreign visions mingle 
with it, and if this alone should take hold of, 
and absorb, and wrap up its beholder in 



152 Life of St. Augustine, 

more inward joys, and such a life, as that 
of which, now recovering our breath, we have 
had a momentary taste, were to last forever, 
would not then the saying, Enter into the 
joy of your Lord, be fulfilled?'" 

The inspired words of her son intimated 
to Monica that she would soon receive the 
call of the adorable Redeemer ; she had seen 
the Saviour in the heart of her child, and like 
Anne and Simeon of old, she reverently 
asked to be dismissed in peace, and she ex- 
claimed, " Son, what has befallen me ? No- 
thing has any more charms for me in this life. 
What I am yet to do here, and why I am 
here, I do not know — every hope of this world 
being now consumed. Once there was a 
reason why I should wish to live long, that 
I might see you a Christian Catholic, before 
I should die. God has now richly granted 
me this beyond measure, in permitting me 
to see you in his service, having totally aban- 
doned the world. What yet have I to do 
here?" A few days after this conversation, 
the tender-hearted mother was attacked by 
a fever, which soon exhausted her vital 



Life of St. Augustine. 153 

powers. Day and night her sons were at 
the bedside. 

Augustine now grieved in earnest that he 
had caused her so many tears and pains, and 
endeavored by the last offices of filial affec- 
tion to make as much amends as possible. 
St. Monica, always alive to the sweet sensi- 
bilities of holy love, perceived the trouble of 
his generous heart, and affectionately assured 
him that he had never spoken an unkind 
word to her. Before, it had always been her 
wish to die at home, and to be interred in the 
grave of her husband. But now her only 
desire was to comply with the divine will. 
" Bury my body somewhere," she said, "and 
do not concern yourselves on its account; 
only this I beg of you, that you will be mind- 
ful of me at the altar of God, where you will 
be." To the question, Whether it would not 
be disagreeable to be buried in a foreign 
land, so far from her native soil? she replied: 
" Nothing is far from God ; and there is no 
fear that He will not know, at the end of 
time, where to raise me up." Thus closed 
the earthly career of one who can be men- 



154 'Life of St. Augustine, 

tioned most properly in the language of 
Holy Scripture : "Strength and beauty were 
her clothing, and she rejoiced in the latter 
day. She opened her mouth in wisdom, and 
the law of clemency was on her tongue. 
Her children rose up and called her blessed : 
her husband, and he praised her. (Prov. xxxi.) 
St. Monica expired in the arms of her son, in 
the fifty-sixth year of her age, at the mouth 
of the Tiber, on the shore of the Mediter- 
ranean sea, which separated Italy from her 
earthly home. 

The event naturally so distressing to weak, 
trembling humanity, rent the heartstrings of 
the forlorn family ; tears like a torrent burst 
from Augustine and Adeodatus ; and wailing 
filled the dwelling where a moment before 
sweetly sounded the words of heavenly mean- 
ing from the lips of one of the noblest ma- 
trons of the Christian household. The sancti- 
fied magnanimity of Augustine relieved him ; 
he believed in the " resurrection and the life,'* 
and would not pretend to honor such a corpse 
with the tearful lamentations which are 
usually given to those who die a miserable, 



Life of St. Augustine. 155 

yea, an eternal death. For his mother had 
not died miserably ; she had merely entered 
into the joy of her Lord. When the weep- 
ing had subsided, Evodius took up the 
Psalter: "I will sing of mercy and of judg- 
ment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing;" and 
the whole house joined in the response. 
Then after the interment of the corpse, the 
Most Adorable Sacrifice was offered on the 
tomb. We cannot pass over the pleasant 
memory, that on that same tomb we per- 
formed our first sacerdotal function on the 
nth of February 1828. 




CHAPTER IX. 

St. Augustine's affections and sentiments at his Mother's 
Death — Arrives at home — Monastic life at Tagestum — 
Ordained Priest — Marvellous success of his ministry 

UGUSTINE found himself at home, alone 
with God ! Gone the tender mother, at 
\) whose breast he lay in infancy, on whose 
knees he smiled and lisped the name "Jesus!" 
Deaf the ear that listened to the voice of 
love ; cold the heart that throbbed in sym- 
pathy; closed the eye that sparkled with joy 
at every meeting ; the pulse which so often 
fluttered with maternal care beats no rnore. 
Awful separation ! who can bear it ? Not 
the unbeliever, who has no hope ; dismal, 
dreary — he sees nothing but a long vista, ter- 
minating in darkness, shadows, frightful phan- 
toms, baleful regions, where a ray of the 
" resurrection and the life " never enters. 
Augustine could bear it — he had life in the 

156 



Life of St. Augustine. 157 

communion of saints — he had the magnificent 
faith which commands us to hope, and points 
through the avenue of time to the immortal 
home where we shall meet again. He was 
now incorporated with Christ in the glorious 
Church where there is an altar at which 
"the chalice of benediction we bless is the 
communion of the blood of Christ; and the 
bread we break is a partaking of the body 
of Christ ;" and where alone it can be truth- 
fully said, "O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory?" Thus felt Au- 
gustine ; he concludes addressing his breth- 
ren : " In this transitory light let them re- 
member my parents with pious affection, and 
my brothers, who, under Thee, the Father, are 
children in the mother, the Catholic Church, 
and my fellow-citizens in the heavenly Jeru- 
salem, after which thy people sigh from the 
beginning to the end of their pilgrimage, so 
that what she asked of me in her last 
moments may be more abundantly fulfilled 
to her by the prayers and confessions of 
many, than by my prayers alone." 

The death of St. Monica induced Augus- 

14 



158 Life of St. Augustine. 

tine to return to Rome, where he sojourned 
till the following year. In the meantime he 
employed himself in confuting the errors of 
the Manicheans. The sad experience of 
former associations qualified him for the 
exposure of the frauds of those miserable 
infidels. "I could not," says he, "bear in 
silence, that the Manicheans should delude 
the ignorant through boasting by their false, 
deceptive abstemiousness and moderation, 
and elevate themselves even above true 
Christians, with whom they are not worthy 
to be compared ; and so I wrote two books, 
the one on 'The Morals of the Catholic 
Church,' the other on 'The Morals of the 
Manicheans.' " 

He sailed for Africa in September 388, and 
on his arrival at Carthage was the guest of 
a much respected friend named Innocentius. 
He was again fortunate enough to have his 
religious sensibilities cheered by witnessing 
one of those miracles which divine power 
operates occasionally, to confound still more 
the stupid infidel, and console his servants 
amidst the calumnies and mockeries of a 



Life of St. Augustine. 159 

God-forgetting world. Innocentius was a 
virtuous and edifying Christian ; being in a 
hopeless condition from a dangerous and 
apparently incurable malady, he prayed fer- 
vently, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on 
me," and several friends, ecclesiastics and 
laymen, united their entreaties for the inter- 
position of the Saviour "healing the sick." 
St. Augustine was present, and relates how 
the physicians coming to perform a desperate 
operation, removed the bandages, and found 
the sore entirely healed. The sage boobies 
of our day have arrived rather late in the age 
of the Church, otherwise with the gas light 
of modern science (?) they would have pre- 
sumed to show how they keep Omnipotence 
under drill according to laws^forces, &c, mak- 
ing it apparent to the edified St. Augustine 
that the tenets and facts regarding the Light 
illumining those "who sit in the shades of 
death" are all moonshine. St. Augustine 
soon left Carthage for his rural home near 
Tagestum, in company with his pious and 
devoted friends. In literal obedience to the 
counsel of Christ, and according to the usual 



160 Life of St. Augustine. 

conduct of many catholics in every age and 
clime, he gave up all he possessed to religion 
and charity, reserving the use only of his 
house, and of the means necessary for him- 
self and religious associates. There he lived 
three years, entirely disengaged from all mere 
temporal concerns, serving God in fasting, 
prayer, good works, meditating upon his law 
day and night, and instructing others by his 
discourses and books. All things were in 
common in the house, and were distributed 
according to every person's necessities, no 
one having the least thing at his disposal as 
a proprietarian. This mode of life was copied 
from the communities which Augustine had 
seen in Italy, the system having been im- 
ported from the East. During the saint's 
retirement, his son Adeodatus passed away 
from this life, in the beauty and holiness of his 
baptismal regeneration. 

St. Augustine had enjoyed his solitude with 
great circumspection, avoiding every risk of 
being forced into high office, and to change 
his habitation; but it happened providentially 
that a magistrate of the neighboring maritime 



Life of SL Augustine. 161 

city— Hippo Regis— solicited his advice, and 
the character of this good Christian moved 
the charity of the holy hermit to make the 
requisite visit. One day, as he was listen- 
ing to the Bishop, Valerius, preaching, the 
congregation were informed by the Prelate 
that a priest should be ordained for the ser- 
vice of the church, and instantly and unani- 
mously Augustine was named. A thunder- 
bolt could not be more startling to the calm, 
happy soul, so long entranced by literary 
* labor and religious leisure. He burst into 
tears, he shuddered at the view of the dan- 
gers occurring in such a charge, he was 
overwhelmed with the anticipated weight of 
its responsibilities, and frenzied by a ferment 
of holy fear and humility, he apprehended 
it as a destiny of destruction. "O, my Father 
Valerius," he said, " do you command me to 
perish? Where is your charity? Do you 
love me? Do you love your church? I am 
sure you love me and your church." How- 
ever, the expediency of his tender conscience 
was overruled by the just demands of a 
divine vocation, and the Bishop determined 

14* 



1 62 Life of St. Augustine. 

on his duty of giving a priest to the altar. 
Then Augustine begged a respite, in order 
to prepare himself in " many things," as he 
said, " wanting to me for the discharge of this 
employment, which are not to be attained, 
but as our Lord directs us, by asking, seek- 
ing, and knocking; that is, by praying, read- 
ing, and weeping." The prudent request was 
complied with, and at the termination of his 
retreat, St. Augustine was ordained about 
Easter time of the year 392. 

Never, since the evangelical fiat, "Go and 
teach," had been expressed on the shore of 
Galilee, was a grander area opened ; never 
since Pentecost, was a more fiery zeal in- 
flamed ; and never since the apostolic voice 
reached every land, was there such an echo 
to the divine word as happened when Augus- 
tine assumed his office to baptize, preach 
and sacrifice. St. Augustine continued his 
monastic manner of living, in a house erected 
for himself and his brethren by the citizens, in 
the gardens of the Bishop, contiguous to the 
church. Valerius found the newly ordained 
priest a valuable assistant, and on account 



Life of St Augustine. 163 

of his own defects in language and speech, 
as well as the superior genius of Augustine, 
he appointed him to preach even when the 
Bishop was present, contrary to the custom 
of the Church in the West. 

St. Augustine was convinced, like St. Paul, 
that the instruction of the flock is a principal 
duty of the pastoral charge, making it obli- 
gatory to preach "in season and out of 
season," and, " woful not to preach ;" he 
preached constantly until the day of his 
death, sometimes every day, and sometimes 
twice on the same day. He did not desist 
even when his voice was impaired by weak- 
ness ; he seemed to gain strength in the 
course of a sermon, the ardor for the salva- 
tion of souls made him forget the pains of 
sickness. Whenever he went into other 
diocesses, he was invariably requested to 
give the people the refreshment of the divine 
word, and was always heard with great atten- 
tion and delight, followed by exclamations 
and applause, according to the custom of the 
age. He perfectly understood all the rules 
of eloquence, and was in his generation the 



164 Life of St. Augustine, 

most admired and successful master of 
others, yet in the pulpit his efforts were 
directed only by a desire to instruct the mind 
and move the heart. Whenever he used the 
power of a rhetorician, or conformed to the 
prevailing literary taste of the age, he did 
so that he might insinuate the truths of re- 
ligion into the understanding of the people, 
by engaging them to hear the gospel instruc- 
tion ; accordingly his sermons, though popu- 
lar, were always sublime. 

Fenelon mentions two instances to show 
the wonderful influence which his pathetic 
eloquence had upon the minds of the people, 
more wonderful than Cicero's victory over 
the determined resolution of the indignant 
Caesar, and more effective than the most 
admired stream of flowery eloquence. The 
first example is related by St. Augustine in a 
letter to Alypius. The custom of celebrating 
the Agapce, or love feasts, in the cemeteries, 
or upon the graves of the martyrs, was an 
abuse which he exhorted Aurelius, Archbishop 
of Carthage, to extirpate by an order of 
council. The people of Hippo would not be 



Life of St. Augustine. 1 65 

restrained from the rioting and intemperance 
prevalent at those festivals, pretending to be 
justified by the authority of their ancestors. 
St. Augustine read before them the vehement 
threats and reproaches of the prophets ; then 
earnestly besought his congregation by the 
ignominies and sorrows, by the cross and 
blood of Jesus Christ, not to destroy them- 
selves, not to dishonor religion in its holy 
places ; to have pity on himself, who so 
deeply felt for their interest, and to show 
due regard for their venerable bishop, who 
out of tenderness for them had commanded 
him to instruct them in the truth. 

"I did not make them weep," he says, 
" by first weeping over them ; but while I 
preached, their tears prevented mine. I own 
that then I could not restrain myself. After 
we had wept together, I began to entertain 
great hopes of their amendment." He had 
the satisfaction of seeing the people reformed 
from that day. The other example referred 
to, is still more remarkable. It was a bar- 
barous custom at Caesarea in Mauritania, for 
fathers, sons, brothers and other relations to 



1 66 Life of St. Augustine. 

array in two parties, at a certain time of the 
year, and to fight publicly by throwing stones, 
for several days. The populace were so 
exceedingly delighted with the spectacle, that 
it was considered a hopeless enterprise to 
withdraw them from the savage entertain- 
ment. "According to the utmost of my 
abilities," says Augustine, " I used the most 
pathetic expressions to extirpate such a cruel, 
inveterate practice. I thought I had done 
nothing, while I only heard their acclama- 
tions, and raised their delight and admiration. 
They were not persuaded so long as they 
could amuse themselves with giving applause 
to the discourse which they heard. But their 
tears gave me some hopes, and declared 
that their minds were changed; when I saw 
them weep, I believed this horrible custom 
would be abolished. It is now eight years 
ago, and upwards, and by the grace of God 
they have been restrained from attempt- 
ing any such practice." Possidius mentions, 
among many instances of extraordinary con- 
versions, that on an occasion of the holy 
Doctor speaking against the Manichean 



Life of St. Augustine. 167 

heresy, Firmus, an eminent, rich and zealous 
patron of the infidels, entered the church, a 
sudden digression from the main subject, 
gained him immediately to Christ. After the 
sermon, Firmus cast himself at the feet of 
St. Augustine, with tears confessed his errors, 
and was afterwards advanced to the priest- 
hood. There is no doubt that he could have 
preached with an ostentation of learning, and 
in a style adapted to the taste of refined 
hearers ; but he was superior to the arts of 
seeking human applause, and as circum- 
stances required, nobly relinquished all claim 
to elegance, for the sake of meeting the 
understandings of his audience. "Melius est 
ut nos reprehendant gra7mnatici } quam ut 7ion 
intellig ant populi. ' ' 

His sermons were eloquent because per- 
suasive, and they were persuasive, for his 
character gave them the stamp of truth, the 
greatest charm in the composition of ser- 
mons. It reflected honor on the ancient 
rhetoricians, that, as a primary qualification 
for successful oratory, they required the 
orator to be a good man. They knew that 



1 68 Life of St. Augustine. 

an esteem of the orator has more weight 
in the mind of a thinking hearer, than in- 
genuity of argument, which a hypocrite is 
often as well able to invent and utter, as an 
honest man. They knew that the best argu- 
ments would avail little from the tongue of 
him who was known to have no principle, 
and consequently, who was ready to defend 
or recommend any thing which the exigency 
of the moment required, in opposition to 
truth and to his own conviction. They 
therefore laid peculiar stress on the moral 
qualification of unaffected goodness in the 
accomplished orator. A poor composition, 
with this quality in the orator, would tend 
more to produce conviction, than the finest 
words and sentiments which were ever com- 
bined without it; and it is to the goodness 
of St. Augustine's life that his discourses 
were principally indebted for their won- 
derful power over the hearer. His piety, 
charity, diligence, and vigilance, were truly 
apostolic. If one were desired to exhibit 
to sceptics or infidels a specimen of human 
excellence produced by the influence of 



Life of St. Augustine. 169 

Christianity, a most finished model is found 
in St. Augustine, in the midst of his flock 
at Hippo. His earnest study of the Epistles 
of St Paul convinced him that nothing can 
possibly assist the ministers of reconciliation 
in furthering the progress of religion and 
virtue, than to support zeal by personal right- 
eousness. This it was that finally converted 
even the most furious persecutors of Chris- 
tianity; and without this, all the gifts which 
the Apostle enumerates — miracles, tongues, 
philosophy, knowledge, wisdom — would be 
useless. 



15 




CHAPTER X. 

St. Augustine consecrated Bishop — Public and private— 
Administration of his Episcopal office — His excellence 
in Charity 

ALERIUS, finding himself sinking under 
the weight of years and infirmities, and 
fearing lest the diocese should be de- 
prived of St. Augustine, through the demand 
of some other city for his sendees, procured 
the consent of St. Au reikis, Archbishop of 
Carthage, and the approbation of his own 
people, and the neighboring prelates of the 
province of Numidia, to make him his coad- 
jutor. The consternation and grief of St. 
Augustine became excessive, and he strenu- 
ously opposed the project. All the ardor 
which an ambitious person applies in pursuit 
of eminence, St. Augustine employed to 
escape it. He entreated, he argued, he ap- 
pealed ; he related the errors of his past life, 
170 



Life of Si. Augustine. 171 

accused his present conduct; he offered evi- 
dence of his unworthiness and incapacity. 
All his efforts were vain; "the stars may 
be obscured," says the prophet, "but humility 
cannot hide virtue." His very resistance 
betrays the modest priest, who, with the 
benedictions of the Church, the salutations 
of the clergy, and the acclamations of the 
people, is placed on the episcopal chair, 
which he honors by his marvellous learn- 
ing, the activity of his zeal, the success 
of his instructions, and the sanctity of his 
whole conduct. At his consecration he re- 
ceived the plenitude of the sacerdotal min- 
istry, and he united to it the plenitude of 
the mental and moral endowments of his 
noble nature. We may bring up to view 
Augustine only as formed by nature, with 
warm, loving soul, its vivacity and generosity 
the cause of many damages; a noble and 
elevated being who never felt resentment, 
nor the torments of jealousy, nor the anxiety 
of duplicity; unreserved in friendship, dis- 
interested in benevolence; the tender son 
of the tender Monica, the affectionate com- 



172 Life of St. Augustine. 

panion of Alypius, the inconsolable mourner 
of Nebridius, This sensitive soul, beine 
devoted to a sacred state of life, turns all 
his affections to God; his moral virtues are 
ennobled by faith, his great heart expands 
in the fire of charity, and all his estimable 
qualities being sanctified by grace, become 
enhanced with a spiritual and celestial value. 
His amiability became sweeter, his compas- 
sion more sensitive, his natural generosity 
more active; hence, having experienced the 
weakness of humanity, he treats sinners with 
tenderness, receives the excuses of com- 
punction with indulgence, and with heroism 
devotes himself to his neighbor. 

The Church "bears record that he had 
the zeal of God." Zeal characterized by the 
divine word as the source of all elevation in 
heaven and earth, the crown and consum- 
mation of righteousness, the purest emana- 
tion of charity ! Zeal, that raises man above 
himself; strips him of all fear; endues him 
with all courage ; burns in his expressions, 
and sparkles in his life; bears him to his end 
with irresistible impetuosity ; the scourge of 



Life of St. Augustine. 173 

impiety and disorder, the inflexible pillar of 
religion and virtue, it formed the character 
of the young Bishop of Hippo, the man 
chosen by God to waft his name throughout 
the universe of faith. Powerful in word and 
works, the living model of all Christian 
virtues, becoming all to all in order to gain 
all, full of bounty and tenderness to the weak, 
severe to those whom no remonstrance 
could reclaim, without elevation in his inter- 
course with the simple and lowly, dignified 
and majestic before the great, capable of 
enduring everything for the faith, producing 
by bold and unslackened efforts the most 
astonishing revolutions in the minds and 
hearts of men, fulminating error even when 
it was sustained by the subtleties of philoso- 
phy, the powers of eloquence, the charms of 
poetry, the force of prejudice and passion, 
all the might of authority. 

St. Augustine, on account of his episcopal 
duties, was obliged to live in the cathedral 
residence. He engaged all the clergy to 
live with himself in community, and to re- 
nounce all property according to the rule he 

15* 



174 Life of St. Augustine. 

established, and strove with them to copy 
after the first community of Christians. (Acts 
iv. 31.) Herein he was imitated by several 
other bishops, and this was the original 
of the regular canons at a latter date organ- 
ized for the service of cathedral and colle- 
giate churches. God and his Church being 
enough for those who vow that their only 
desire is to work in the vineyard of the Lord, 
whoever would not consent to this mode of 
life, was not admitted into the clerical body 
at Hippo. In this religious domicile, candi- 
dates were prepared for the important duties 
of " ministers of the mysteries of the kingdom 
of God," and "preachers of reconciliation." 
No better instructor could be found than St. 
Augustine. Already as a priest he had 
attracted to Hippo his old friends, Alypius 
and Evodius, and several new ones, among 
whom were Possidius and Severus, for the 
prosecution of mutual studies ; and these 
formed the beginning of that theological 
nursery, out of which about ten bishops and 
many inferior clergy went forth from time 
to time. Possidius tells us that the saint's 



Life of St. Augustine. 175 

clothes and furniture were plain; decent, not 
slovenly. No silver was used in the house, 
except spoons. The dishes were of wood, 
or earthen ware. The diet was frugal, being 
mostly herbs and pulse, though flesh was 
served for strangers and the sick ; nor was 
wine wanting, a regulated measure being 
placed before all, which no one was allowed 
to exceed. At table, reading and literary 
conference were preferred to secular conver- 
sation, and to warn his guests to shun detrac- 
tion, the following distich was placed over 
the table: 

This board allows no vile detractor place, 

Whose tongue will charge the absent with disgrace. 

If any persons transgressed in that way, 
he reproached them, and to show his dislike 
for such offences he withdrew to his closet, 
as Possidius had frequently witnessed. He 
carried out the Apostolic rule and practice 
with the utmost simplicity and exactness, hav- 
ing nothing to do with the world and tem- 
poral things except " through necessity," and 
then, "without solicitude." Accordingly, to 
avoid interference with his pastoral duties 



176 Life of St. Augustine. 

he entrusted to competent persons the build- 
ing of churches, hospitals, and other religious 
and charitable institutions which he caused 
to be erected. He appointed some of his 
clergy to manage the temporalities, and re- 
ceived from them an exact account at the 
end of the year. 

St. Augustine felt the episcopal office, as 
St. Paul designates it " bonum opus" there- 
fore its grand but awful responsibilities ex- 
cited conscientious attention, and quickened 
energetic zeal. " There is nothing," says he, 
" in this life, and especially in this age, more 
easy, more agreeable, and more acceptable 
to men, than the office of bishop, or pres- 
byter, or deacon, if its duties are performed 
at pleasure, and in a time-serving spirit; but 
in the eyes of God, nothing more miserable, 
more sad, more damnable. Likewise there 
is nothing in this life, and especially in this 
age, more difficult, more laborious, more dan- 
gerous, than the office of a bishop, or pres- 
byter, or deacon, but also none more blessed 
by God, if a man conducts himself therein as 
a true soldier under the banners of Christ." 



Life of St. Augustine. 177 

In an age of marvellous charity, St. Augus- 
tine was signalized by the ardor and activity 
of holy love. Truly it was a period of 
prodigies of Christian love. The earth be- 
came the image of heaven, the plaintive tone 
of indigence no longer heard, the felicity of 
every individual inseparable from the felicity 
of the whole ; and by this admirable concert 
of parts, an august body formed, in which all 
men, however unequal in rank, were ren- 
dered equal by their moderation, great by 
their disinterestedness, and happy by their 
beneficence. 

Wonderful are the accounts transmitted 
to us in history on this subject. For several 
years the benevolence of Christians rose so 
far above the level of ordinary conception, 
that the Pagans attribute it to some secret 
spell or charm that had the power of inspir- 
ing violent and irresistible attachment. "It 
is inconceivable,'' says one writer, "what un- 
remitting diligence those Christians use to 
succor one another, since they have aban- 
doned true religion and adore a crucified 
man ; their teachers have acquired the won- 



178 Life of St. Augustine. 

derful art of persuading them that they are 
all brothers, insomuch that the whole of their 
possessions are given up for the general 
welfare." We have likewise the testimony 
of the greatest enemy the Christian faith 
ever had, and certainly the most subtile and 
dangerous ; for he did not, like his prede- 
cessors on the throne, carry fire and sword 
among its abettors, since experience had 
proved that such attempts were fruitless, and 
only served to give new vigor and increase 
to the cause ; but as the love and charity of 
the Christians went evidently to beget and 
diffuse veneration for the principles that could 
inspire them, he strove, if possible, to clothe 
heathenism in the same fascinating exterior, 
and thus oppose Christianity with its own 
weapons. " Since nothing," says Julian the 
Apostate, in a letter to a Pagan priest, 
" has contributed more to the progress of 
the Christian superstition, than their attention 
to the poor and friendless, let us even exceed 
them in this way ; let us immediately estab- 
lish hospitals and other asylums for indigence 
and infirmity in every city; for certainly it 



Life of St. Augustine. 179 

is no small ground of reproach, that we 
should be so glaringly deficient in these things, 
whilst those impious Galileans cherish and 
relieve, not only the wretched of their own 
communion, but likewise of ours." 

In addition to this striking testimony of 
primitive benevolence, it is recorded, that in 
a single town, namely, Alexandria, there were 
annually five hundred individuals chosen out 
of the body of Christians to superintend the 
relief of the diseased poor only ; and so ex- 
cessive was the zeal of benevolence in this 
way, that Eusebius, the first Christian histo- 
rian, in describing a plague that laid waste 
the interior of Egypt, has these remarkable 
words : " Multitudes of our brethren, without 
distinction of rank, sacrificing life to the prin- 
ciple that inspired them, supported the loath- 
some and infected bodies of the expiring 
in their arms ; and, after closing their eyes, 
carried them on their shoulders to the grave, 
only living to receive, in the course of a 
few succeeding moments, the same prompt, 
generous, and intrepid office of mercy from 
others." To poor prisoners and captives 



180 Life of St. Augustine. 

the relief was also never-failing- and extraor- 
dinary ; witness only what is related of a 
bishop, who, together with the entire clergy 
of his diocese, sacrificed all they possessed 
at the moment, and were to derive from the 
revenue of their respective benefices for 
one or more years, to alleviate the sufferings 
of many Christians then languishing in the 
prisons of Rome, under the united pressure 
of cruelty and famine. There was no possi- 
ble calamity to which the indefatigable eye 
and burning heart of benevolence was not 
directed. It appears from a commentary of 
one of the Fathers on the gospel of St. Mat- 
thew, that, not reckoning widows and orphans, 
destitute children, and strangers, and lepers, 
and those whose distress was only discovered 
by investigation, or, if we may so call it, the 
sacred curiosity of charity ; besides those 
various cases, there were four thousand poor 
of other descriptions, supported by the Chris- 
tian benefactions of one small quarter of 
the city of Constantinople. Even a studied 
and dignified ostentation in the display of this 
virtue was deemed justifiable, as we find from 



Life of St. Augustine. 1 8 1 

a singular example with respect to the em- 
peror Decius. The tyrant demanded the 
fancied treasures of the Church ; a deputa- 
tion replied on the part of the body, and 
requested but a day to satisfy the order ; in 
the interim they assembled the lame, the 
blind, the diseased, friendless infancy, and 
helpless decrepitude, an interesting and mot- 
ley group of all wretchedness, and producing 
them, exclaimed, " Behold the treasures of 
the Church ; this is the only wealth and in- 
heritance which Jesus Christ has bequeathed 
to his disciples." 

St. Augustine excelled even when charity 
was so universal and eminent that the heroic 
exercise of that virtue could hardly distin- 
guish particular individuals. When any want 
moved his heart, his hand opened for the 
lavish donation of benefits. His only visits 
beyond the sanctuary and the cloister were 
made to the isolated, forlorn, and distressed. 
The poor of every grade were considered 
as his family, without reference to number 
or variety of necessities; he held himself, 
and each clergyman, as the father of orphans. 

16 



182 Life of St. Augustine. 

No obstacle checked the hand of relief; he 
despoiled himself of everything in seasons 
of exhausting need, and even melted up the 
vessels of the sanctuary in extreme cases, 
for the support of the suffering, and the 
redemption of the prisoner. Once, when he 
observed that but little was cast into the col- 
lection boxes, he concluded his sermon with 
these words: "I am a beggar for beggars, 
and take pleasure in being so, in order that 
you may be numbered among the children 
of God." He was indefatigable in reclaim- 
ing those who strayed from the ways of recti- 
tude, and recalling wearied wanderers to the 
security and peace of the Christian fold. The 
heart-broken sinner was a most acceptable 
guest, and for them he wept frequently in 
public and private. In the reconciliation of 
enemies, and the rescue of criminals from the 
severity of justice, he displayed his greatest 
talent. If he could not pardon the guilty, 
he lightened their chains; if he could not 
obtain full remission of judgment, he was 
sure to win the privilege of blending clem- 
ency with inevitable legal rigor. On this 



Life of St. Augustine, 183 

account the saintly Bishop was equally re- 
spected for the goodness of his heart and 
the elevation of his genius. The eagle of 
Hippo freely descended from the high hea- 
ven of delightful, enrapturing thoughts, into 
the nauseous details of the murky region 
of human woe, and exhibited the grandest 
aspects in a prism of intelligence, kindness, 
and compassion. 

The inexhaustible charity of the saint 
was remarkably distinguished in regard to 
some of the denominations of infidelity, alias, 
Protestantism, which troubled the world in 
his time. He manceuvered to bend their 
pride; with holy artifices he coaxed them 
towards the fold of the Good Shepherd; at 
the same moment he labored by prayer and 
fasting to drive out the devil of incredulity 
which possessed them. In this holy pursuit 
he at one time induced three hundred bishops 
to agree to share the honors of the episco- 
pacy with those adversaries who would sin- 
cerely return to the bond of unity. "Al- 
though," he said, "you do not will it, you 
are my brethren; good or bad, you are my 



184 Life of St. Augustine, 

brethren. Have we not wounded enough — 
have we not disputed enough? Children of 
the same father, let us be friends in the 
same charity. And why not? There is no 
question about dividing the inheritance; it 
is a common property, to be enjoyed by all 
in common." This language is remarkable 
indeed, and so much more, when we con- 
sider the circumstances of this touching" and 
generous appeal. At a time of his greatest 
success, that might elate a very humble man ; 
when haughty opponents, who had insolently 
defied him, were publicly confounded; when, 
as the friend of Caesar, he might have crushed 
them by the weight of his credit, as well as 
by the power ol his genius, he is thus con- 
descending to the ferocious Circoncelliones, 
who often attempted to assassinate him; who 
had burned churches, massacred priests; 
insane fanatics, who were as ready to die 
themselves as to murder others, and who 
invariably answered chastisements by fury, 
and kindness by audacity. And the temper 
of the age was unfavorable to indulgence 
and moderation. It was the reign of Theo- 



Life of SL Augustine. 185 

dosius and Honorius, who looked upon the 
extirpation of heresies as a duty of piety and 
an affair of policy. Then it was that 'St. 
Augustine threw himself between the refrac- 
tories and the sword of the law; then he 
pleaded for the conservation of their for- 
tunes, refused to profit by their spoliation, 
entreated the proconsul of Africa to detest 
their errors, but to have a care for their 
persons; and dismissed the soldiers of Hono- 
rius, who desired to enforce by violence that 
which he was determined to obtain by kind- 
ness. Truly magnificent the religion which 
inspires such sentiments, and honorable be- 
yond comparison the hero who, moved by 
its spirit, and armed only with its virtue, 
gained the "victory of faith." 

Having won every heart by charity, St. 
Augustine subdued every mind by eloquence, 
and immortalized his episcopate by his mar- 
vellous instructions. As bishop, he applied 
himself with extraordinary assiduity to the 
ministry of the divine word ; he prepared 
himself by prayer and retreat ; like Moses, 
he hid himself in the cloud, where in the 

16* 



1 86 Life of St. Augustine. 

depths of his soul he heard die invisible 
Legislator whose commandments he was 
about to publish, and like the " eagle of 
Libanus," spoken of by the prophet, " which 
fed upon the marrow of the cedar," he nour- 
ished himself with the substance of the sacred 
Scriptures. He penetrated the " hard things" 
of holy writ alluded to by St. Peter, and 
"devouring," according to the expression of 
the Apocalypse, "the sacred volume." 





CHAPTER XL 

Magnificence and Universality of the labors of St 
Augustine — He appears unequalled as Apostle, Light 
of Doctors, and Defender of the Faith. 

O far we have touched only the prelude 
to the apostolical labors of the illustrious 
Bishop of Hippo ; his mental vision 
glanced over the expanse of Christendom, 
and he felt that the whole universe of religion 
did not exceed the extent of his zeal ; " he 
stood and measured the earth." 

Erasmus, having considered the immense 
labors and indefatigable zeal of St. Augus- 
tine for the salvation of souls, justly says of 
him : " In the epistles and other writings of 
this holy man, how manifestly do his piety, 
charity, meekness, gentleness, kindness, love 
of concord, and zeal for the house of God, 
appear ? What doth he not endeavor ? How 



doth he labor ? 



How doth he turn 

187 



and 



1 88 Life of St. Augustine. 

change himself into all shapes ? If there 
appear the least hopes of drawing one pagan 
to Christ, or one heretic to the Church, how 
doth he condescend, how doth he, as St. Paul 
saith, 'change his voice? How anxiously 
doth he intercede for those wicked Circon- 
celliones, who deserved more than one death? 
Who ever solicited more for his friends than 
he doth for his enemies ? With what pangs 
doth he bring forth all to Christ? How 
diligently doth he endeavor to lose all and 
lose none? How grievously is he afflicted 
when any scandal ariseth ? Methinks I see 
the hen in the gospel, solicitous and anxious 
to gather and cherish her chickens under 
her wings. In him alone, as in a mirror, may 
be seen a perfect bishop, such a one as St. 
Paul describeth." Being aware that as a 
bishop he had not ceased to be a citizen, he 
labored equally for his country and religion, 
so that nothing which concerned the welfare 
of the commonwealth was indifferent to him. 
He was ready to oppose the tyranny of 
authority and to control the anarchy of sub- 
jection ; to solicit the diminution of govern- 



Life of St. Augustine. 189 

ment tributes, and to defend the weak and 
lowly against oppression. He was often 
requested to arbitrate in affairs of the state 
and of the family, and invariably did honor 
to his ministry, and satisfactory service to all 
classes. It is said by Possidius, that he was 
obliged sometimes to hear cases the whole 
day fasting, which he did diligently, affection- 
ately and patiently, making use of every 
means to reconcile the parties amicably, 
whether they were Christians or infidels, his 
main object being to draw them to God, and 
to a virtuous life. He complained of this 
irksome charge only so far as it caused dis- 
traction in the exercise of holier functions ; 
yet, charity, his only compensation, made all 
things supportable to him. 

He was convinced that the episcopacy is 
one, and that all the pastors are charged 
inseparably with the gospel ministry ; his 
zeal and influence extended beyond his own 
household of the faith, and reached the en- 
tire African, even the whole Western Church. 
Profiting by the ascendency which his renown 
had given him, and the hierarchical honor 



190 Life of St. Augustine, 

earned by his virtue, he assisted the most 
eminent prelates, watched over their election, 
guided the choice of the people, animated 
the devotion of princes, and enlightened their 
zeal. He was the very soul of those famous 
councils, which, although not oecumenical, 
established salutary discipline, and gloriously 
illustrated the Church. From the college 
of learning and piety which he formed, a 
large number of missionaries, animated with 
his spirit, enriched many dioceses with apos- 
tolic vigor. Hippo was no longer least 
among the cities of Juda, the inconsiderable 
town became a second Rome, a model and 
a rule for other churches, on which the atten- 
tion of Christendom was fixed ; its pontiff 
was consulted from the extremities of the 
earth, for his wisdom reflected the enlighten- 
ment of the centre of gospel light. In fact, 
the obscure See of Augustine became a 
support for the chair of St. Peter, so that 
it may truly be said that the effects pro- 
duced by Athanasius in Egypt, by Hilary in 
Gaul, by Ambrose in Milan, were realized by 
Augustine, who, as the Church beautifully 



Life of St. Augustine. 1 9 1 

sings in the Liturgy, on his festival : Lai cos 
docuit, clericos monuit cunctorumque conditioni- 
bus providendo, tuam in hoc mare naviculam 
provide gubernavit. 

When we reflect on human frailty, and 
take into account the daily experience of 
mankind, we can easily understand how it 
happened that Augustine was seduced by 
the attractions of pleasure, his ardent imagi- 
nation transported by the senses, and his 
natural advantages turned to the detriment 
of his character in his early lifetime. But it 
is a difficult problem to find the same man 
renovated by faith having such rectitude of 
heart in the soul once so dissipated ; such 
love of truth where there had been an en- 
slavement of falsehood ; so great enlighten- 
ment in a region of the darkness of sin 
and death. How was this? It was meet 
that Augustine should be disciplined for a 
grand triumph of grace, when he became 
a testimony of its omnipotence, and a proof 
of its necessity. Providence ruled it that 
religion should be honored by a martyr 
of a novel species, who sacrificed his self- 



192 Life of St. Augustine. 

will, became docile in defiance of preju- 
dices, humble in despite of haughtiness, and 
thus assured the world that every thing is 
possible and feasible on the score of virtue, 
whereas Augustine practised it; all faith is 
credible, for the exalted genius of Augustine 
bowed submissively to the peremptory dic- 
tates of religion. In a word, one of the 
greatest genius', tutored by adversity, cau- 
tioned by his failings, became spiritually 
strengthened in proportion to the weakness 
ol humanity, and provided truth with a 
defender whom infidelity could not suspect, 
gainsay or conquer. 

The Church needed more than ever apos- 
tolic aid in the age of Augustine, when 
religion was exposed to the greatest trials. 
Christianity, it is true, was enthroned in tri- 
umph, and feared not the sword of tyrants; 
but in the very profundity of peace new tem- 
pests were engendered. A universal con- 
vulsion disturbed the whole of the then 
known world, the vast Roman empire was 
tottering into fragments, and a tide of barbar- 
ism swept all before it unto the extreme 



Life of St. Augustine. 193 

limits of civilization. In the midst of this 
catastrophe, vain, profligate rebels against 
God and His anointed, excited the turbulent 
passions of heathens and publicans, ventilat- 
ing the most hideous and nauseous contra- 
dictions to the teaching of the Church. In 
veterate and immutable Protestantism, true 
to its Satanical origin, and its volcanic con- 
stitution cradled in the bottomless pit, spread 
streams of the lava of infidelity in various 
denominations as numerous and nearly as 
bad as those which desolated society in the 
sixteenth century ; and threatened a chaos 
in the Church parallel with the barbarian 
prowess which shattered the throne of the 
Caesars. But the Lord provided in St. 
Augustine a hinderance to "the gates of 
hell," a great High Priest, who in his life 
propped up the house and fortified the 
temple. He took care of his nation, and 
delivered it from destruction, and obtained 
glory in his conversation with the people. 
As the sun when it shineth, so did he shine 
in the temple of God. When he went up to 

the holy altar, he honored the vesture of holi- 
17 



194 Life of St. Augustine, 

ness. And about him was the rine of his 
brethren ; and as the cedar planted in mount 
Libanus, and as branches of palm-trees, they 
stood round about him. He poured out at 
the foot of the altar a divine odor to the 
most High Prince. Then all the people 
together, fell down to the earth to adore the 
Lord their God. Then coming down, he 
lifted up his hands over all the congregation, 
to give glory to God with his lips, and to 
glory in his name. And he repeated his 
prayer, willing to show the power of God. 
(Eccl. 50.) 

Ecclesiastical history does not exhibit any 
spectacle more imposing than Augustine's 
encounter with all the infidel and impious 
sectaries, alias, various denominations of 
his time. He restrained them by conviction, 
or gained them by confidence ; his penetra- 
tion divined their purposes ; his amiability 
coaxed them to peace and union ; and he 
never was discouraged by their number, nor 
misled by their artifices. No mind can pur- 
sue his rapid career of victory ; no pen will 
ever adequately describe this noble champion 



Life of St. Augustine. 195 

of the faith, battling like the Archangel 
Michael with "the old dragon." If that task 
could be accomplished, we might see Augus- 
tine resembling those valiant Israelites who 
skilfully used various arms at the same mo- 
ment, and used both hands with equal dex- 
terity; for he alternately combated the con- 
ceited Pelagian who exaggerated the rights 
of free-will, and the sordid Manichean who 
endeavored to debase it ; the audacious Don- 
atist who spurned the divine authority of 
the Church, and the insidious Arian who tried 
to delude it ; the haughty philosopher whose 
reason had to be humbled, and the stupid 
idolater who was taught how to respect 
reason ; and amidst those legions of innova- 
tors, so different in their pretences, interests 
and. systems, Augustine presented an invul- 
nerable aspect on which were engraven, as 
with the ancient High Priest, these two titles, 
"doctrina et Veritas — doctrine and truth." 

The world was still soiled by the vile rem- 
nants of paganism which had escaped the 
zeal of the apostles and the influence of the 
martyrs ; being still accredited by passions, 



196 Life of SL Augustine. 

interest, and custom, they battled against the 
light and virtues of Christianity ; and Augus- 
tine undertook to give them the last exter- 
minating blow. He had already in the early 
season of his conversion entered the lists 
with the Sceptics, exposed the conceited 
ignorance of their vain philosophy, so defiant 
of nature and common sense. From the 
chair of Hippo the prophecy of Isaias was 
fulfilled to the letter, the one God was 
exalted, and Augustine had the happiness 
before his death, to see the last idol fall. 
(Is. ii. 18.) 

Whilst he triumphed over paganism, Au- 
gustine gave the final and deadly wound to 
the Manichees, who added many of the 
ancient ethnical dreams to their own peculiar 
errors. He had once adopted their sense- 
less doctrines; tried to be persuaded that 
august virtue is the slave of fate, and that 
the empire of God may be divided. But 
if he abused reason most when prostituting 
it to these absurdities, he vindicated it most 
successfully when the abomination of infi- 
delity was doomed to irretrievable disgrace. 



Life of St. Augustine. 197 

Grand indeed was the triumph of Divine 
grace when the illustrious doctor unmasked 
his former deceivers, exposed them to public 
scorn, obliged them to fly from his presence, 
and almost with a breath crumbled the pil- 
lars of the faction when he defied Fortuna- 
tus, after conquering the indomitable Felix; 
forced Faustus to be silent, and then accom- 
plished his conquest in the thousands of 
misguided partizans who, prostrate in the 
sanctuary of truth, abjured their errors. 

Being determined to root out the pesti- 
lence most effectually, St. Augustine chal- 
lenged Fortunatus, a highly esteemed Mani- 
chean priest, to a public conference, which 
was accepted, and lasted two days. The dis- 
cussion turned principally on the origin of 
evil, which St. Augustine proved to be 
derived from the free will of the creature. 
Fortunatus, a very learned and able dis- 
putant, was unable to say more than that 
he would confer with the heads of his sect. 
Shame soon drove him from Hippo, and his 
flight caused the conversion of a large num- 
ber of his deluded adherents. Faustus, a 
17* 



198 Life of St. Augustine. 

bishop of the Manicheans in Africa, was the 
idol of his sect, and by his eloquence, affected 
modesty, and agreeable behavior, perverted 
many of the class of persons who have itch- 
ing ears, and are addicted to man-worship. 
He boasted that he had forsaken all things 
to obey the gospel, although in reality he 
had nothing to forsake, and led the life of 
a voluptuary. This man published a book 
against the Catholic faith, full of blasphemous 
invectives against the divine revelations con- 
tained in sacred Scripture, and the mystery 
of the incarnation. St. Augustine answered 
this publication in twenty-three books, where- 
by he demolished the whole construction of 
mendacious impiety, and brought down the 
author to the level of his dark and disgrace- 
ful infidelity. A member of the so-called 
Elect of Manicheism visited Hippo for the 
purpose of reestablishing his sect, so com- 
pletely prostrated by the holy prowess of 
the noble doctor of the Church. He was 
not so learned as Fortunatus, but was more 
artful. It was agreed to hold a public dis- 
putation with St. Augustine, and the issue 



Life of St. Augustine. 199 

was the conversion of Felix, who, on the spot, 
professed the Catholic faith, anathematizing 
Manes and his blasphemies. 

The heresy of the Priscillianists, somewhat 
similar to Manicheism, at that time infected 
several parts of Spain, and likewise the errors 
of the Origenists. Paul Orosius, a Spanish 
priest, made a voyage to Africa to inform St. 
Augustine, whose fame had reached the 
whole of Christendom, about those heresies, 
and to receive a befitting remedy. The 
indefatigable Defender of the Faith produced 
his work " against the Priscillianists and Ori- 
genists," in which he condemned the impious 
errors that, the human soul is of a divine 
nature, sent into the body in punishment of 
former transgressions, till it be purified in 
this world; and he proved that it is created 
by God, and that when condemned, its tor- 
ments, like those of devils, are eternal. 

It surprises as much as it edifies, to behold 
St. Augustine constantly and successfully 
applying the grace which was in him to so 
many and so diverse emergencies of religion, 
that seemed solely dependent on the succor 



200 Life of St. Augustine. 

of his genius and piety. Pascentius, super- 
intendent of the imperial demesnes in Africa, 
and an Arian heretic, insulted the Catholics 
on account of the simplicity of their faith, 
and, with that paltry impudence indigenous 
in all generations of lay protestants, chal- 
lenged the bishop to a conference. When 
they met, the " infidel warrior of words" 
would not allow notaries to write the pro- 
ceedings, which St. Augustine declared would 
be reported according to every person's pre- 
possession and fancy. Pascentius conceitedly 
insisted on having the word "consubstantial" 
shown to him in Scripture. St. Augustine 
asked him to point out in the sacred volume 
the term, " not begotten," which he used, and 
demonstrated that it suffices to find the sense 
of the word in equivalent terms. Maxi- 
minus, a protestant bishop of the Arian 
denomination, accompanied Sigisvult, com- 
mander of the Gothic troops in Africa, and 
when he arrived at Hippo, challenged St. 
Augustine to a public disputation, which, as 
usual, ended in the discomfiture and disgrace 
of the antichristian disputant. 



Life of St. Augustine. 201 

Other protestants of Pagan and Jewish 
denominations elicited the zeal of the holy 
doctor. The latter he confuted by a treatise, 
in which is demonstrated the necessary abo- 
lition of the Mosaic dispensation, through 
its perfection and change into the gospel law, 
and the Church of Jesus Christ, in whom all 
that had been predicted and prefigured was 
accomplished and realized. When St. Au- 
gustine turned his attention to the idolaters, 
he gained their good will by rendering them 
several important services. This grateful 
disposition he improved with a view to their 
spiritual advantage, and induced them to 
embrace the faith of Christ. When the bar- 
barians poured out a desolating torrent from 
Northern Europe, and Alaric wrecked and 
plundered Rome, the remnant of Pagans re- 
newed their blasphemies against the Chris- 
tian religion, as the cause of these calamities, 
St. Augustine repelled the slanders in one 
of the greatest works of any age — "The 
City of God," and demonstrated that heathen 
iniquity attracted the thunder-bolts of hea- 
venly justice. No faction of incredulity or 



202 Life of St. Augtistine. 

immorality large or small, obscure or noto- 
rious, escaped the vigilance of this heroic 
"watchman on the towers of Sion." Several 
Tertullianists still subsisted at Carthage, whom 
St. Augustine by mildness and zeal reunited 
to the Catholic Church, as also another sect, 
called, from Abel, Abelonians. The heresi- 
arch Jovinian was inimical to virginity conse- 
crated by religious vows, and on this account 
had been condemned by Pope Siricius, and 
the Council of Milan ; nevertheless his dis- 
ciples stated that his opponents condemned 
matrimony. St. Augustine confuted the men- 
dacious assertions in a book, "On the Advan- 
tages of Matrimony," in which he shows that 
state of life to be holy, that many engage in 
it upon motives of virtue, and surpass many 
virgins in sanctity. Against the errors of 
the same heresiarch, he published a book 
" On Holy Virginity," proving it to be a more 
perfect vocation, if embraced for the sake of 
God, with humility, and a fervent consecra- 
tion of the heart to divine love. 

The prostestant sect of perdition which 
then most disturbed Africa, and gave the 



Life of St. Augustine. 203 

greatest employment to the genius and zeal 
of St. Augustine, was the Donatist denomina- 
tion. The first authors of this infidel faction 
were condemned as schismatics in a council 
at Rome in 313, and by the great Council of 
all the West at Aries in 314. Having vio- 
lated the unity of the Church, they, as usually 
happens in all schisms, fell into the profound- 
est depths of heresy. Their first error was 
that the Church became defiled, and ceased 
to be the institution of Christ, this being- con- 
fined within the limits of their own sect. 
Secondly ; no sacraments can be conferred 
by those outside the true church, hence they 
rebaptized all who joined their party. They 
were divided into so many sects in Mauri- 
tania and Numidia, that they themselves did 
not know their number. The chief among 
these were denominated Urbanists, Claud- 
ianists, Maximianists, Primianists, Rogatists. 
Each party pretended that they alone had 
the true baptism, and were the true church. 
The Donatists were exceedingly numerous 
in Africa, and obstinate to a degree of mad- 
ness. At Hippo, catholics were in a minority. 



204 Life of St. Augustine, 

and the Donatists had such sway, that a 
short time before the arrival of St. Augustine, 
their bishop, Faustinus, forbade any bread 
to be baked in the city for the use of Catho- 
lics. We are informed by St. Possidius, the 
disciple and biographer of St. Augustine, that 
far the greatest part of professing Christians 
in Africa were at that period infected with 
the errors of the Donatists, who carried their 
fury to the greatest excess, murdering many 
Catholics. St. Augustine soon commenced 
the apostolic work of opposing, and then 
extirpating the pestilential heresy, in public 
and in private, in the churches and houses, 
both by his words and writings. His learn- 
ing and zeal, supported by the sanctity of 
his life, relieved the Catholics, and advanced 
the general interests of religion. 

The Donatists were so much exasperated 
that they declared publicly, his murder would 
be highly meritorious before God, and the 
greatest service to religion; and the crime 
was often actually attempted by crowds of 
the protestant denomination of Circoncel- 
liones, when the holy Prelate made the visit- 



Life of St. Augustine. 205 

ation of his diocese. On one occasion he 
escaped the assassins because his guide had 
mistaken the road; for which preservation he 
gave public thanks to God. The saintly 
Bishop was obliged to ask the secular mag- 
istracy to restrain the outrages of those emis- 
saries of Satan; at the same time that the 
Emperor Honorius {proprio motii) issued 
edicts against them, condemning them to 
heavy fines and other penalties. At first 
St. Augustine disapproved of such correc- 
tion; but he soon was obliged to change his 
opinion, for, as he observes, their open sedi- 
tions, and acts of violence, distinguished them 
from the Arians and other heretics, and 
required several adequate remedies. Never- 
theless, he employed against them no other 
arms than mildness and charity. He even 
obtained the remission of a fine imposed 
on Crispin, a Donatist bishop, not only for 
heresy, but also for having conspired against 
the life of Possidius, Bishop of Calama. 
Those wretched enemies of religion and 
society, having erected the standard of re- 
bellion and persecution, against all laws and 

18 



206 Life of St. Augustine. 

authority, required the just restraint of legiti- 
mate power; accordingly, the emperor com- 
missioned lawyers, under the title of " De- 
fenders of the Church," to prosecute the 
Donatists according to law. This name, 
long before in use, is mentioned in the 
Council of Carthage, A. D. 349, and in 
succeeding ages, and it signified a tribunal 
appointed to protect widows, orphans, the 
virtuous and the weak, from oppression. So 
ancient and just the institution styled in 
modern times, "The Inquisition," — slandered, 
misrepresented and condemned by the satel- 
lites of Lucifer, who rolls in an orbit of 
iniquity, "like a roaring lion, seeking whom 
he may devour." Meanwhile, St. Augus- 
tine exhorted the Catholics to labor for the 
conversion of the sons of perdition, by fast- 
ing and praying, and by inviting to the truth 
with sincere charity; avoiding all discord and 
contention. 




CHAPTER XII. 

Combats and triumphs of the Geeat Doctor in the cause 
of Religion — Immense advantages gained by his Con- 
ferences with Infidels — Immortalized as the Champion 
of Grace. 

95^ HE most important transaction that oc- 
curred at this time was the conference 
held at Carthage between the Catholics 
and Donatists. St. Augustine had frequently 
invited Proculcian, the Donatist bishop of 
Hippo, and others of that sect, to a fair dis- 
putation before competent judges ; but they 
constantly declined, alleging his superior 
eloquence. St. Aurelius of Carthage, St. Au- 
gustine and the rest of the Catholic prelates, 
agreed in a national council to send to all 
the Donatist bishops an invitation for de- 
puties of both sides to meet at an appointed 
time and place, in order to discuss the con- 
troverted articles. The Donatists answered 

207 



208 Life of St. Augustine. 

that they could not confer with the successors 
of traitors and sinners, whose company would 
defile them. By such evasions the disputa- 
tion was deferred till, at the request of the 
Catholics, the Emperor Honorius compelled 
them by a rescript to meet within four 
months, to hold public conference, for which 
he appointed as president the tribune Marcel- 
linus. Two hundred and seventy Catholic 
Bishops immediately subscribed to this ar- 
rangement. Marcellinus ordered seven bish- 
ops to be chosen as disputants on each side ; 
the Catholics were, Aurelius, Alypius, Augus- 
tine, Vincentius, Fortunatus, Fortunatianus 
and Possidius ; the Donatists were, Primi- 
anus, Petilianus, Emeritus, Protasius, Mon- 
tanus, Gaudentius, and Adeodatus. The con- 
ference was opened on the ist of June 411, 
and continued during three days. 

The principal share in the debate devolved 
on St. Augustine, who bore away the glory 
of the triumphant day, which resulted in 
the extirpation of a ruinous heresy, the con- 
version of an immense number of perverts, 
and salutary influences experienced from age 



Life of SL Augustine. 209 

to age, even to the present day. Noble 
and sublime beyond description was the 
attitude of the greatest Doctor of the Church, 
when he confronted the malignant host of 
three hundred Donatist bishops. Almost 
singly, he attacked and defended, armed 
only with truth and genius ; at every instant 
forcing "iniquity to belie itself," pursuing 
the enemy through every ambush of retreat ; 
unceasingly confounding them by this start- 
ling question : " Whence do you come ? 
where were you on yesterday?" and strength- 
ened by the divine authority of the Church, 
and resting on this firm and unassailable 
rock, he launched forth and repelled attacks, 
until, by the power of inspired reason, the 
victory was accomplished. It would be 
impossible to develop or set forth in a be- 
coming light that magnificent display of 
intellect, sacred learning, and Christian piety. 
With evangelical skill he separated the 
cause of the Church from that of any one 
of its rebellious members ; demonstrating the 
unreasonableness of breaking unity, it being- 
improper for a part to argue against the 

18* 



210 Life of St. Augustine. 

whole, as it is unnatural for a separated 
branch to strike against the trunk. With 
masterly vigor he depicted schism, its per- 
petual variations, the full deformity of the 
rupture, the misfortune of its partizans — 
" clouds without water — withered trees, the 
miserable sport of wind and storm." 

Eloquently and forcibly he exhibited the 
grand Church, whose authority cannot be 
usurped, nor its majesty imitated, nor its 
possession disturbed by any sect or party. 
Havinof no other founder than the Divine 
Incarnate Word, it rises as the " Pillar of 
Truth," strong as it is beautiful in the unity 
of its construction ; it is pure, though vicious 
elements float near and around it ; immova- 
ble, though the earth quakes in the shocks of 
scandal ; like the sun, it is most brilliant and 
fair when shining through the clouds which 
seek to obscure its radiance ; and visible to 
every eye, it encircles every age and clime; 
it is hailed in every language and by every 
people with the title, "One, Holy, Catholic, 
Apostolic Church ;" so that if a stranger 
should ask, " Where is the Catholic Church?" 



Life of St. Augustine. 211 

no innovator would dare to point out his 
own meeting-house, Marcellinus pronounced 
judgment in favor of the Church, and the 
emperor issued new edicts against the Dona- 
tists, ordering their clergy to be banished 
out of Africa, and the usurped churches to 
be restored to the faithful. Pride, shame, 
obstinacy, essayed a temporary resistance, but 
in vain; the power of truth gradually crushed 
every obstacle. The new Samaria blushed 
for its desertion; the adulterous partizan 
abjured Donatus to return to the adorable 
Saviour; Africa had only one altar, one 
Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and the happy 
reunion which Caesar could not inaugurate 
by force of law, Augustine consummated by 
the potency of his talent, eloquence, and 
grace. An occasion occurring, in connection 
with his conquered foes, St. Augustine dis- 
played a charity of heart as marvellous as 
the prowess of his intellect. 

Several of the obdurate and unconverted 
sectaries having lain in ambush near Hippo, 
had killed Restitutus, a Catholic priest ; and 
when arrested, confessed their crime before 



212 Life of St. Augustine. 

the magistrate, Marcellinus. St. Augustine 
immediately pleaded in their favor and en- 
deavored to save them from the just rigor 
of the law. "We neither impeach them," 
said he, " nor persecuted them, and should 
be sorry to have the sufferings of the ser- 
vants of God punished by the law of retalia- 
tion." He entreated Marcellinus to respect 
that meekness which the Church exercises 
towards all men, and requested that those 
criminals might not be put to death, but only 
restrained from hurting others, by means 
of imprisonment, or employment in public 
works. He wrote to the same purpose to 
Apringius the proconsul, and brother of Mar- 
cellinus, who was to be their judge, remind- 
ing him that the sufferings of Catholics were 
examples of patience, which we must not 
sully with the blood of our enemies. This 
signal display of St. Augustine's charity is 
sadly contrasted by an event that exhibits 
the dire malignity of Protestantism, which, 
from the first moment of its foundation by 
Lucifer, invariably returns evil for good, 
thus ever harmonizing with its crucifixion 



Life of St. Augustine. 213 

of the Head of the Church, because He had 
wrought many miracles and prayed for his 
enemies. The Count Marcellinus, who was 
a very virtuous and religious man, enter- 
tained the greatest veneration and regard 
for St. Augustine, and this was reciprocated 
with equal affection and esteem on the part 
of the saint, than whom there never was a 
more tender or warmer friend. 

When Heraclian, who had been proconsul 
in Africa, rebelled in 413, being vanquished 
by Count Marinus near Rome, he fled to 
Carthage, and there was put to death. The 
Donatists conspired to be revenged for the 
sentence pronounced against them at the Con- 
ference, and created suspicions and charges 
against Marcellinus and Apringius as being 
favorable to the rebels, and implicated in 
the revolt. At the instigation of the wicked 
heretics, Marinus, who had arrived in Car- 
thage in pursuit of Heraclian, arrested the 
brothers, and suddenly ordered them to be 
beheaded. St. Augustine was deeply afflicted 
by this barbarous murder. He had justified 
his friends, and obtained a promise that they 



214 Life of St. Augustine. 

would be liberated ; but the perfidious Mari- 
nus preferred gratifying the infidel's thirst 
for the blood of the saints. The holy bishop 
visited Marcellinus in prison, afforded him all 
possible comfort, and prepared him for death 
by administering the sacraments and holy rites 
of the Church. He gives, in his Epistles, a 
pathetic description of the patience and heroic 
charity of the victim of heretical spite. He 
states that when visiting Marcellinus in prison, 
he asked him if he had committed any sin 
for which he ought to do canonical penance ? 
he grasped the bishop's hand, and declared, 
" by those sacraments conferred by that hand, 
he never had been guilty of any such sin." 
St. Augustine avoided all communication with 
Marinus, and exhorted others to testify their 
indignation against him, so as to oblige him 
to do adequate penance for his crime. The 
Emperor Honorius disgraced Marinus for 
his evil deed, honored Marcellinus as one 
martyred by Donatist malice, and styled him 
" of glorious memory." In the Martyi-ologies 
this holy servant of God is ranked among 
the martyrs on the 8th of April. 



Life of St. Augustine, 215 

The important service to religion rendered 
by St. Augustine, in his encounter with 
Pelagianism, stands foremost in the array of 
his grand labors and triumphs. Pelagius, 
the archenemy of divine grace, was a man 
of considerable talent, also favored by an 
imposing display of apparent virtues, and 
well provided with all the artifices suitable for 
seduction. His system of infidelity was the 
more attractive, whereas it pretended to en- 
courage virtue, and less alarming to religion 
because it used the language of faith; it 
was pleasing to pride by flattering its pre- 
tensions, to nature by exaggerating its power, 
and to reason by extolling its capacity. The 
impious impostor seemed to the ignorant and 
unstable to remove every difficulty, to clear 
up every mystery, to elevate humanity, and 
to illustrate the divine holiness. How could 
there be a hope of escape from so many 
snares? The needful succor was prompt 
and ready ! Pelagius might deceive the 
clergy in France, puzzle a council, confuse 
the whole East, impose on Pope Zozimus, 
seduce even the elect; but with St. Augustine 



2i 6 Life of St. Augustine, 

"the gates of hell could not prevail;" the 
fortress of infidelity fell beneath the prowess 
of the champion of divine grace. 

We need not enter upon a profound dog- 
matic discussion, for the purpose of exhibit- 
ing the inspired reasoning of Augustine in 
his exposition and defence of the heavenly 
gifts, whence all justice comes, and the mys- 
terious vocation which prevents man with- 
out constraint, an ineffable operation acting 
efficaciously on the will which acts freely, 
and an admirable concurrence, which at the 
same time gives the credit of virtue to God 
who excites, and to man who cooperates. It 
is sufficient to say, that with surpassing genius 
and devotion, he developed the definite truth 
of divine grace written by St. Paul: "Work 
out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
bling: for it is God that worketh in you, both 
to will and to do." (Phil, ii.) 

The great doctor treated this sublime sub- 
ject in a manner so luminous that he seemed 
to lift the veil of mystery, and to pierce with 
a novel ray of vision, "the glass through 
which we look dimly." In doing this he pro- 



Life of St. Augustine. 217 

ceeded boldly through all sorts of difficulties 
without the slightest check; he combated 
all systems without forming any system; he 
vindicated the rights of God, without derogat- 
ing from the privileges of man; and in the 
complication of mysteries, he touched the 
limits of reason, and the limits of faith, and 
chased error through its various detours, and 
unceasing novel forms, without ever passing, 
even in the slightest measure, the unique 
and immutable line of truth. With equal 
zeal and sagacity he pursued the blasphem- 
ing Pelagius, cited him to the tribunal of the 
supreme Pontiff, and declared that he would 
abdicate the See of Hippo, in case the vicious 
heretic should be allowed impunity. In fine, 
the indefatigable apostle did not relax until 
he saw the East and the West unitedly crush- 
ing, with the same anathema, the hideous 
revolt against Christ and his grace. 

Thus, by the immense and magnificent 
labors of St. Augustine, the empire of divine 
grace was fixed immovably, and its necessity 
and power, its sweetness and gratuity, were 
impressed with sacred sanction. The exer- 



218 Life of St. Augustine. 

tion and triumphs of the illustrious Doctor 
were not limited to the grand feats already 
enumerated. Arians, Priscillianists, Nesto- 
rians, Semi-Pelagians, Tertullianists, Sabel- 
lians, and a motley legion of minor sectaries 
vanished before him, like the clouds of night 
before the morning sunshine. Truly mar- 
vellous was the prophet and guide who com- 
bated so many factions without being him- 
self a partizan; so many extravagances with- 
out any excess; and who, inflexible in prin- 
ciple as he was indefatigable in zeal, advanced 
with measured and sure steps amidst the 
admiration of earth and the benediction of 
heaven, to his loyal goal, the exaltation of 
Christ's kingdom. 




\ 



CHAPTER XIII. 

St. Augustine ceushes every Error ; sustains every Truth ; 
and by his Piety and Learning adorns and illumines 
the whole structure of religion. 

HE success of St. Augustine was glorious 
not only on account of the sacred intelli- 
gence which it expressed, but also from 
the nature of the errors upon which it acted. 
The early Fathers had to deal only with 
Montanus, Valentinus, Marcion, Basilides, and 
other obscure sectaries having a weak and 
brief posterity: it was the glory of St. Augus- 
tine to encounter those huge heresies from 
which are derived all the denominations of 
subsequent ages. From Arius to Luther, 
from Luther to Socinus, from Socinus to the 
impious babblers of the present time, every 
profane novelty must tremble and sink be- 
neath the genius of the indomitable con- 
queror of infidelity. It was not only Donatus, 

219 



220 Life of St. Augustine. 

Manes and Pelagius that he crushed, but 
also the impious of every region, the heretics 
of every age ; in the Pelagians all the pre- 
tended disciples of nature ; in the Mani- 
cheans all the apostles of fatalism ; in the 
Donatists all the partizans of the thing named 
the Church of England by law established, so 
very truthfully described by the historian 
Macaulay: "It commenced with Henry the 
murderer of his wives, it progressed with 
Somerset the murderer of his brother, and 
was completed by Elizabeth the murderer of 
her cousin and her guest;" and of which the 
so called Dean of Paul's meeting-house in 
London said, "the like of it is not known in 
Europe, Asia or America, not even in Tim- 
buctoo." Schism cannot invent a pretext 
which Augustine has not confounded ; nor 
heresy a sophism which he has not refuted ; 
nor bewildered reason a difficulty which he 
has not solved. In his triumph over the 
ancients, he has anticipated the moderns : 
and thus entwining in the crown of his victory 
the past, the present and the future, and 
adding to the splendor of his talents the 



Life of St. Augustine. 221 

grandeur of his services, he combines in him- 
self the honor of all the holy doctors, and 
the gratitude of all ages. 

Our knowledge of the Bishop of Hippo 
would be imperfect if the inspection of his 
character concluded with the aspects of 
polemic and controversialist. He was a 
profound philosopher, a wise interpreter, a 
skilful critic, a sublime moralist, an eloquent 
exponent of virtue, so that with the inex- 
haustible wealth of his intellect he could 
construct more than he destroyed, and was 
more able in the establishment of truth than 
in the dissipation of error. The truths 
which he maintained and so magnificently 
illustrated, were not some particular points 
of morality, or detached mysteries, or scattered 
rays of light, his work was a concatenation 
of all points of doctrine, a development of 
the whole plan of revelation, perfectly origi- 
nal without the trace of any antecedent 
model. It is not presumed that before him, 
religion had not the benefit of teachers and 
writers, " men of renown, great in their gen- 
eration," always held in memory and honor. 



222 Life of St. Augustine. 

Such were Lactantius, called by St. Jerome 
" The Christian Cicero " ; St. Cyprian, as 
sublime in virtue as he was in diction. Ori- 
gen, always admirable, though not always 
convincing; Tertullian, who so ably made 
the harshness of his expressions subservient 
to the boldness of his thoughts, and St. 
Hilary, who would have been the greatest 
man of the age, if St. Athanius were not his 
contemporary. But each of those eminent 
doctors treated only some isolated truth, and 
discussed religion under some special aspect. 
St. Augustine alone embraced its totality, 
and presented in one complete body the 
majesty of its teachings ; like an able archi- 
tect, who takes a vast building into one 
point of view, and so distributes the various 
parts as to make harmonious unity from the 
foundation to the crowning of the edifice. 
Hence all that may be desired by mind and 
heart is found in the treasury of his writings. 
If we wish to be impressed by the grandeur 
of holy writ, we can read his books on Genesis 
and the Christian Doctrine. He exhibits the 
marks of the superiority of the sacred volume 



Life of St. Augustine. 223 

above all other books ; its guarantee of an- 
tiquity, its charming simplicity, and admirable 
blending of light and shade, alternately test- 
ing and sustaining faith; the unction which 
penetrates the inmost recesses of the soul, 
the majesty which astonishes, the eloquence 
which flows continuously without palling, and 
beautifully interweaves grand objects and 
familiar images, satisfying at once the most 
ordinary and most exalted intellects. 

If it be desirable to search the ways of the 
interior life, the Soliloques, and explanation 
of the Psalms, guide surely and directly ; 
therein every thought is a sentiment, every 
expression a sparkling flame. Never had 
divine love more tender effusions, never did 
piety speak sweeter language. With pa- 
thetic accents he renders the sighs of the 
prophet, and depicts his ecstasies in coloring 
of celestial light ; and at the same time com- 
municates to us the various sentiments he 
had himself experienced ! We weep and 
rejoice; we fear and hope with him; and 
when unable to distinguish the divine from 
the human element, one is inclined to ask, 



224 Life of St. Augustine. 

whether the author or the commentator is 
most inspired. If we seek enjoyment in the 
admiration of Christianity, in the beauty of 
its morality, and the grandeur of its benefits, 
full edification is afforded in the writings on 
the utility of faith and Christian morality. 
Religion appears equally sublime in the im- 
pressions it produces, and the objects it con- 
templates ; substituting the fictitious credit 
of human virtues with the perfection of a 
justice springing up in the heart from an 
immortal source, it discloses a new prodigy 
in man, at one and the same time captive and 
free, submissive and great, humble and ex- 
alted. In the book entitled the "City of 
God," we are transported into the first prin- 
ciples of things, enabled to attend at the first 
council of creation, and to trace the whole 
history of religion running parallel with the 
course of time. In that marvellous work, St. 
Augustine soars above his own ordinary 
excellence, whilst he develops with lightning 
flashes the designs of God, and runs along 
the whole chain of religion, whereof the first 
and last link touches eternity. With indes- 



Life of St. Augustine. 225 

cribable skill he depicts the concurrence of 
all events for the glory of the divine work. 
Empires reel and crumble, the sport of time, 
but out of every convulsion, and beyond 
every wreck, the faith rises intact and trium- 
phant. Anarchy and confusion, like earth- 
quakes and tempests, threatening universal 
disorder, are seen to be so many contrasts 
setting off the indefectible order and per 
petuity of religion. Throughout this won- 
derful scene, which St. Augustine alone could 
model, the immutability of the Eternal Deity 
is kept in view ; also His wisdom always 
fruitful, His power always active, reducing 
all things, howsoever various and different, to 
a solidarity of His worship. It would be no 
exaggeration of fancy to name this work 
"City of God," a magnificent hymn of loving 
benediction, harmonizing with the " Heavens 
which declare the glory of God. ,, 

Reverent curiosity may sometimes for a 
pious purpose attempt to scan the whole 
economy of man's salvation, if so, the writings 
on " Perseverance, and the Predestination of 
the Saints," unfold as much of divine truth 



226 Life of St. Augustine. 

as the human mind is capable of receiving. 
There man is seen advancing between the 
two abysses of justice which can do every- 
thing, and of goodness which nought obliges ; 
sometimes abashed by fear, sometimes re- 
lieved by hope ; he is taught like the royal 
prophet to sing " of mercy and of justice ;" 
of mercy, that he may not be ungrateful when 
he is saved; of justice, that he may not com- 
plain when he is condemned. The depth 
of luminous thought in which St. Augustine 
exhausts his knowledge, is wonderful beyond 
all that has ever been called prodigious. 

If it be asked, who has had the grandest 
views of religion, who has spoken of God in 
the most sublime terms, who has discussed 
mysteries most precisely, and virtue most 
sweetly, we are told it is Augustine. He is 
the patriarch amongst all the Fathers who 
had the greatest influence on his age, con- 
tributed most to dignify the human mind; and 
whilst he never borrowed from others, the 
learned and scientific of every age and clime 
have drawn much from the abundance of 
his oifts. To estimate his marvellous career 



Life of St. Augustine. 227 

it would be necessary to assemble in one 
point of view his various enterprises ; all the 
faithful and the ignorant persons he guided 
and instructed ; the multitude of sinners and 
heretics converted ; the task he assumed, to 
allay turmoil, to stop scandal, to answer many 
popular demands for his interposition. We 
should also take into account his correspond- 
ence with bishops, councils, with sovereign 
Pontiffs, with emperors, with all the saints 
and great men who flourished in his day, with 
the East and West, in fact with the universal 
Church, of which he was the principal oracle 
and representative. When we behold the 
monuments of his zeal and weigh the impedi- 
ments of the age, owing to the scarcity of 
books and the difficulty of communication ; 
when we consider that as large a portion 
of his life was wasted in worldliness as 
was employed in the service of the Lord ; 
that after his episopal consecration he was 
obliged to pass incessantly from one occupa- 
tion to another, without a moment of leisure 
in the sanctuary or the library ; when we 
count all those volumes, their mere catalogue 



228 Life of St. Augustine. 

forming a large volume, and which take more 
time for transcription than wa£ used in their 
composition ; we may ask, how could one 
man alone write so much, and how could 
he draw from his mental treasury so much 
ancient lore, so much modern novelty ? 
Must we think that he created that which he 
had not time to learn ; that his knowledge 
was less the produce of study than of inspira- 
tion ; or that the highest human capacity 
was multiplied in him ; or that he had a 
power for checking the rapidity of time ? In 
fact, it is not one man alone that we have to 
contemplate, but geniuses as numerous as 
the different subjects of his labor and zeal. 
When we read his ascetical works, it might 
appear that he was entirely occupied in medi- 
tation ; or when we peruse his polemical dis- 
sertations, it might be suspected that he was 
always in the combat of discussion ; whilst 
the study of his oratorical discourses would 
seem to leave him time for nothing else than 
to announce the sacred word. 

A pause in admiration of the miraculous 
fertility of St. Augustine's apostolical labor, 



Life of St. Augustine. 229 

suggests that we have arrived at the climax 
of the gifts and graces of this most privi- 
leged mortal. But there is something still 
more estimable in relation to his noble char- 
acter as Pastor and Doctor. It is the ele- 
vated confidence of a mind knowing every- 
thing, combined with the modesty of a Chris- 
tian believing that he knew nothing ; the 
amiable docility inclining him to prefer the 
advice of his colleagues to the dictates of his 
own sovereign reason, the generous oblivion 
of self in all his undertakings, being desirous 
only to achieve the triumph of truth, and 
the advancement of religion ; the tender piety 
and marvellous unction never exhausted in 
the arid discussions ; in fine, the heroic integ- 
rity which, in the " Book of his Confessions," 
induced him to censure his faults with more 
severity than would be inflicted by the calum- 
nies of his bitterest foe, expiating, as it were, 
his celebrity, by a publicity coextensive with 
the fame of his sanctity and learning. 

This second apostle of the Gentiles could 
in all truth, yet with the same humility, ex- 
claim in the words of St. Paul : " By the grace 
20 



230 Life of St. Augustine. 

of God I am what I am." And all genera- 
tions must bow reverently to the Divine 
Grace, which can form such men; as simple 
as they are wise, they give to their genius 
all the credit of their virtues, and enhance 
their virtues with the elevation of their 
genius ; always convinced that all is vanity 
except what is given by Him who created 
all things, who said : " Let there be light, and 
light was made." 




CHAPTER XIV. 

The last yeaes of St. Augustine's Life — Vandal Devasta- 
tion in his Chuech and Countey — He displays the Wis- 
dom AND CoUEAGE OF THE CHEISTIAN HEEO. 

jrlKE all the faithful followers of the Divine 
<| Redeemer, St. Augustine could " enter 
/ j into glory only through many trials and 
tribulations." In his lifetime, the judgment 
of heaven was awfully executed upon the 
gentiles who had raged, and " the people who 
had conspired foolish things, and the kings 
of the earth who stood up against the Lord 
and His Christ." The gigantic fabric of 
Roman dominion was smitten by barbarian 
prowess, the spear of the Vandal shattered 
the imperial throne, and a Gothic banner 
waved over every classic land. Since the 
unannalled days of the first flood, when the 
primitive science, art and knowledge of man- 
kind were destroyed, there had been naught 

231 



232 Life of St. Augustine. 

within comparison so appalling to the unshel- 
tered world as the Scythian tide which swept 
all before it to the confines of civilization. 
The Church suffered, but did not succumb ; 
altars were desecrated, asylums ruined, the 
clergy murdered, as always happens in the 
revolutions of barbarism and infidelity. St. 
Augustine suffered intensely through reli- 
gious sympathy, even whilst the sad events 
were far out of his sight. His faith was his 
victory, his hope was his strength, yet the 
magnanimity of his spirit caused him, through 
the greater elevation of his charity, to shudder 
in the tempest like the cedar of Libanus, that 
owing to its height bows before the gusts 
of the hurricane, although never riven nor 
uprooted. At length grief came upon him 
in his homestead of religion, was increased by 
bitter personal experience, and the heavy 
misfortunes which befell his flock, and the 
entire fold of his native land. 

Count Bonifacius, chief commander of the 
imperial forces, had the character of a vir- 
tuous devoted Christian ; he was loyal to 
church and state, and accordingly was es- 



Life of St. Augustine. 233 

teemed as a dutiful disciple and trusty friend 
by the bishop of Hippo. After the death 
of his wife he resolved to forsake the world, 
and to embrace a monastic state. St. Au- 
gustine and St. Alypius knowing well the 
value of vocations coming not from the dis- 
interested oblation of the heart, but from 
the sulky temper of selfishness, dissuaded 
him, as they were sure that he would be 
more useful to church and state in his secular 
condition of life. It would be well if the 
same discretion were used with persons who 
insult religion by pretending to use it, when 
huffed, as a means of spiritual suicide. Boni- 
facius by degrees strayed from his Christian 
course of life, and being commissioned by 
the emperor to proceed to Spain, he there 
married a protestant woman of the Arian 
denomination, related to the royal Vandal 
family. This alliance procured for him the 
friendship of the infidels, and although he 
insisted on the woman becoming a catholic 
before the celebration of the marriage, it 
would appear to be the cause of evil conse- 
quences. It undoubtedly afforded an oppor- 
20* 



234 Life of St. Augustine. 

tunity to ^Etius, a rival officer, to render the 
fidelity of Bonifacius suspected by Placidia, 
at that time regent of the empire during the 
minority of her son, Valentinian III. In an 
unhappy moment Bonifacius was induced, by 
the vile passions of selfishness and personal 
spite, to make a treaty with the Vandals of 
Spain for the invasion of the fertile and pros- 
perous province of Africa. St. Augustine 
wrote to him, exhorting him to do penance 
for his sins, and to return to his duty as a 
Christian and citizen. But Bonifacius was 
not disposed to take his advice. Genseric, 
King of the Vandals, greedily accepted the 
traitorous invitation, and led from Spain, to 
conquest and devastation, an army which in 
its chieftain and its host would pass muster 
as a levy en masse from the infernal regions. 
There never has been an invasion more 
sanguinary and ruinous. The Vandals, natu- 
rally cruel, had their cruelty aggravated by 
the persuasion that they were hated and des- 
pised ; and being Arians, their ferocity was 
increased by heretical animosity. The fair 
land of Hannibal and Augustine, so long 



Life of St. Augustine, 235 

esteemed the garden of the world, on account 
of its fertility and opulence, its industry and 
commerce ; and the number of its cities and 
towns, magnificent in edifices, eminent for 
the culture of liberal arts and sciences, was 
rapidly desolated by fire and sword. At the 
risk of their own destruction, the Vandals 
spared not the harvest lands, nor fruits of 
trees, nor vine nor olive, nor any kind of veg- 
etation, in order to starve the unfortunate 
people who sought refuge on the mountains, 
and in the caverns of the wilderness. Rank, 
wealth, talent, feebleness of age or sex, were 
equally disregarded by the remorseless mur- 
derers. Delicate women, persons notably 
refined and illustrious, were heavily laden, 
and driven along the highways like beasts of 
burden. Infants were torn from the bosoms 
of mothers and dashed against the stones. 
When a fortress was attacked, and considered 
impregnable, the barbarians collected a mul- 
titude of prisoners and slaughtered them 
close to the ramparts, in order that the infec- 
tion from the putrefying bodies might spread 
death amongst the besieged, and force them 



236 Life of St. Augustine. 

to surrender. Frenzied Arianism made a 
countless host of martyrs. Bishops, priests, 
religious men and women, whole families of 
pious and devoted Christians, with mangled 
limbs, laden with chains and exhausted by- 
famine, were dispersed on the highways. 
Mansuetus, Bishop of Uri, was burned at the 
gate of Furnes, and Papinian, Bishop of Vita, 
was roasted alive with red hot bars of iron. 
Altars and sanctuaries were desecrated ; 
churches razed to the ground ; the abodes of 
charity and learning desolated ; and gloom, 
silence and ruin alone made record of the 
times and places where former generations 
enjoyed the delights and consolations of 
religion and civilization. 

It is startling to behold such horrors befall- 
ing a land once so renowned for its saints 
and martyrs, its churches, councils, and doc- 
tors, its maintenance of sound doctrine and 
discipline. A distressing explanation is given 
by writers of the time, especially Salvian, a 
cotemporary witness. The terrible catas- 
trophe was regarded as a well deserved 
chastisement. The Vandals themselves said 



Life of St. Augustine, 237 

that it was not by their own impulse they 
acted so ferociously, being impelled by an 
irresistible internal force. With the excep- 
tion of a small number of faithful servants 
of God, the Roman province of Africa be- 
came a sink of iniquity. Whilst each bar- 
barous nation had some particular promi- 
nent vice, the Africans surpassed in the uni- 
formity and universality of crime. Widows 
and orphans were especially oppressed, and 
the poor in general were so much tormented, 
that in fits of desperation they prayed God 
to deliver the place to the barbarians. A 
considerable portion of the population, nomi- 
nally Christian, were heathens at heart. They 
adored the goddess Astarte ; were devoted 
to the most hideous impersonations of im- 
purity and debauchery; and from the sacri- 
fices to idols, proceeded to the church to 
receive sacrilegiously holy communion. St. 
Augustine was moved by the terrible visita- 
tion ; and in proportion to the vivacity of 
his mind and the generosity of his heart, he 
deplored the devastation of his native land. 
He mourned not only for the physical calami- 



238 Life of St. Augustine. 

ties of the people, but his whole soul was 
overwhelmed with grief for the spiritual ruin 
that was likely to ensue. He labored inces- 
santly as bishop, friend and citizen, to admin- 
ister relief and consolation. All the opera- 
tions that hitherto so often and so diversely 
issued from his piety, learning, and zeal, 
seemed to concentrate in one act of devotion 
to meet the fearful emergency. He was 
constant in prayer, beseeching the Lord to 
give to his servants all seasonable graces, 
and especially for himself he asked the help 
necessary to enable him to fulfil all the 
extraordinary duties that devolved on him. 
He preached, like St. Paul, " in season and 
out of season," exhorting the people to con- 
stancy and resignation, to reverence for the 
unspeakable mercies and unsearchable judg- 
ments of God, always just, holy, and adorable, 
and with extraordinary emphasis he besought 
them to turn their sufferings to advantage, 
by bearing them as penance for sin, and in 
imitation of the passion and death of the 
Divine Saviour. 

From some of his discourses, and through 



Life of St. Augustine. 239 

the narratives of the time, especially those 
of St. Possidius, we see the great Bishop 
appearing in the awful crisis like the miracu- 
lous cloud in the camp of Israel, affording 
light and shelter. Hence from all sides he 
was applied to for guidance and encourage- 
ment. Thus he was consulted by a bishop 
named Quodvultdeus, and by Honoratus the 
bishop of Thabenna, whether it were lawful 
for bishops, and other clergymen to fly upon 
the approach of the barbarians. St. Augus- 
tine's answer to Quodvultdeus is lost; but 
in that to Honoratus he refers to it, and 
repeats the same advice. He states that, 
"It is lawful for a bishop or priest to fly, 
when he alone is aimed at, and the people 
are not molested; or when the people are 
all fled, so that the pastor has none left who 
have need of his ministry ; or when the min- 
istry may be better performed by others who 
have no occasion to fly." "In all other cases," 
he says, "pastors are obliged to watch over 
their flock, which Christ has committed to 
them, neither can they forsake it without a 
crime." Representing the desolation of a 



240 Life of St. Augustine. 

town like to be taken, and the necessity of 
the presence of Christ's ministers, he writes: 
" In such occasions what flocking is there to 
the church, of persons of all ages and sexes, 
of whom some require baptism, others abso- 
lution and penance, and all crave comfort. 
If then no ministers are to be found, what 
misfortune for such to go out of life un- 
regenerate, or, if penitents, not absolved! 
What grief to their faithful kindred, that they 
cannot hope to see them in everlasting rest! 
What cries, what lamentations ; nay, what 
imprecations from some to see themselves 
without ministers and without sacraments ! 
If, on the contrary, ministers have proved 
faithful in not forsaking their people, they are 
an assistance to all, according to the power 
received from God. Some are baptized ; 
others are reconciled ; no one is deprived of 
the communion of our Lord's body. All are 
comforted, fortified, and exhorted to implore, 
by fervent prayers, the assistance of the 
divine mercy." From these epistles we can 
understand how the faithful Shepherd him- 
self was employed in the terrible crisis. 




CHAPTER XV. 

The closing scene harmonizes with the Grandeur and 
Beauty of St. Augustine's Life — His Death precious in 

THE SIGHT OF THE LORD. 

//OUNT DARIUS was sent by the em- 
M press Placidia into Africa, to treat of 

J peace ; Bonifacius produced authentic 
evidence, showing how he had been betrayed, 
and driven to his unfortunate course by the 
treachery of ^Etius ; and having returned to 
his allegiance, was again entrusted with the 
command of the imperial army. He, by 
money and force of arms, endeavored to 
retrieve the loss of Africa, but all in vain. 
The barbarians were insatiable in their feast 
of blood, and their appetite was whetted by 
the heretics who availed themselves of the 
fatal opportunity for glutting their animosity 
against the Church. Onward swept the tide 
of desolation, until it encircled Hippo, the 
21 . 241 



242 Life of St. Augustine. 

strongest fortress in Africa. Thither fled 
Bonifacius after defeat in battle ; Possidius 
and several bishops took refuge in the same 
place, seeking rather the consolation of St. 
Augustine, than doubtful protection against 
the enemy. 

The Vandals marshalled their forces before 
the city in May 430, besieging it by sea 
and land. St. Augustine said to his friends : 
"What I pray God for is, that He will deliver 
this city from the enemy; or, if He has deter- 
mined otherwise, that He may strengthen 
His servant for his sufferings ; or, which I 
would rather, that He would call me from 
this world to Himself." The last prayer was 
favorably received by the Divine Master, to 
whom he had been " a good and faithful ser- 
vant." In the third month of the siege the 
holy Bishop, noble Confessor, and illustrious 
Doctor, was seized by a fever. From the 
first moment of his illness he was sure that 
he was blessed with the summons " to enter 
into the joy of the Lord." It must always 
be esteemed a happy privilege for those who 
wish to tread in the footsteps of the saints, 



Life of St. Augustine. 243 

■that we have the early life of St. Augustine 
presented to us by himself in the Book of 
his Confessions ; and the scene of his mortal 
dissolution depicted by an eye-witness, his 
own saintly disciple, Possidius. Undoubtedly, 
the best use of life is to learn how to die. 
Poor simpletons esteem it a very sacred in- 
dustry to prepare for the stormy day by 
heaping some rotting rubbish on the verge 
of the grave ; most proper it is, for those who 
have the cunning of the gospel, to be fitted 
to break through the lurid tempest with the 
triumphant war song of a Christian deadly 
combat : " Death, where is thy sting ? Grave, 
where is thy victory?" We are taught the 
desirable lesson at the death-bed of St. 
Augustine, through the means of Possidius* 
narrative, so excellent, because so strictly 
matter of fact 

During the long years of the holy Prelate's 
retirement from the world death had been 
the chief subject of his meditations, and in his 
last days he spoke of " the mortal putting on 
immortality" with great cheerfulness, saying, 
"We have a merciful God." He often spoke 



244 Life of St. Augustine. 

of the resignation and joy of St. Ambrose 
in his last moments ; and related the saying 
of our Lord to a certain bishop in a vision, 
mentioned by St. Cyprian: "You are afraid 
to suffer here, and unwilling to go hence ; 
what shall I do with you ?" He also men- 
tioned the last words of a friend and fellow- 
bishop, who, when he was departing out of this 
world, said to one, that remarked he might 
recover from his illness: "If I must die once, 
why not now?" He could not repress the 
desires of his soul for the glorious condition 
of eternity, when "we shall see God face 
to face, and know Him as He is." He 
expressed the emotions of his heart in the 
words of the Psalmist: "Till I shall come, 
till I appear before him, I cease not to weep, 
and these tears are sweet to me as food. 
With this thirst with w T hich I am consumed, 
and ardently carried towards the fountain 
of my love, whilst my joy is delayed, I 
continually burn more and more vehemently. 
In the prosperity of the world no less than 
in its adversity, I pour forth tears of this 
ardent desire, which never languishes or 



Life of St. Augustine. 245 

abates. When it is well with me as to the 
world, it is ill with me till I appear before 
the face of my God." His fervor increased 
with each declining hour, and intensified his 
compunction and humble penance. He used 
often say in familiar discourse, that, " after 
the remission of sins received in baptism, 
the most perfect Christian ought not to 
leave this world without earnest repentance. " 
Whilst the saint lay sick, Possidius relates, 
by the imposition of his hands he restored 
to perfect health a man who was brought to 
him for that purpose on account of an advice 
given in a vision. Possidius adds : " I knew 
both when he was a priest, and when he 
was a bishop, that being requested to pray 
for certain persons that were possessed, he 
had poured out prayers and supplications 
to our Lord, and the devils departed from 
them. ,, 

Ten days before his death he withdrew 
into complete retirement, not allowing any 
one to visit him, except those attendants 
whose services were indispensable. All this 
time was spent in profound meditation and 



246 Life of St. Augustine. 

prayer. The penitential psalms of David 
were, by his orders, hung in tablets upon 
the wall by his bedside, and as he there lay 
prostrate, like the holy mourners agonizing 
at the foot of the cross of Calvary, life's tide 
ebbed in his utterance of the words of that 
tearful psalmody. The holy, sweet, adorable 
name, so cherished in childhood's innocence, 
so profoundly reverenced in manhood's ex- 
alted temper, wafted to eternal bliss the 
immortal soul on the expiring breath that 
exclaimed Jesus! when St. Augustine, on the 
28th of August, 430, departed into posses- 
sion of the kingdom prepared for him by the 
Father whom he loved. 

"We being present," adds Possidius, "the 
adorable sacrifice was offered to God for 
his recommendation, (as had been done by 
him for his mother St, Monica,) and so he 
was buried. He made no will, for this poor 
man of Christ had nothing to bequeath. His 
library and manuscripts, already bestowed 
on the Church, he ordered should be care- 
fully preserved." 

We turn back over the lapse of time which 



Life of St. Augustine. 247 

makes the fourteen hundredth anniversary 
of St. Augustine's natal day, and looking at 
the sepulchre of the illustrious dead, we 
exclaim: must the oracles of the world die 
like the rest of men; neither the glory they 
expanded on human nature, nor the vital fire 
of the Divine Spirit within their souls, can 
arrest the blow which hurls them into the 
dust of the common wreck of mortality! The 
reverie is broken by the voice of the " Resur- 
rection and the Life," telling us that the great 
Augustine, who believed in Jesus, is not 
dead; his doctrine, his piety, his zeal, his 
triumphs and his benefactions, have not 
descended into the grave with his mortal 
clothing; the vesture of his immortal fame 
is in the safe deposit of religion, and in all 
its integrity transmitted from generation to 
generation. He lives eternally in the coun- 
cils where his decisions have become the 
infallible teaching of the Church; in the 
chairs of truth, where he is daily quoted as 
the wisest interpreter; in the writings of all 
the doctors who draw from the fountain of 
his inspiration. So long as schisms will last, 



248 Life of St. Augustine. 

they shall be confounded by the catholicity 
of Augustine; so long as the proud will 
resist, they shall be subdued by his docility; 
so long as irreligion will vaunt the prestige 
of pretended great men, the conceit shall 
be crushed by the magnificent authority of 
Augustine. After all the vicissitudes of four- 
teen hundred years, his genius lives unim- 
paired, unclouded, exercising its immutable 
and immeasurable influence throughout the 
whole universe of religion, and shines as a 
beacon light on the ramparts of the city of 
God, making plain the path for the followers 
of Christ, guiding wanderers out of labyrinths, 
and deterring intrusions of the enemy. Dur- 
ing those many generations, all the great 
men in the history of the Church have fer- 
tilized their talents with the wealth of his 
intelligence. Like those mighty orbs of light, 
which in their movement in the firmament 
draw onward a multitude of minor lumi- 
naries, St. Augustine impels every mind, 
brightens every thought, directs every pen 
daily consecrated to the service of religion ; 
so that if ever his writings should be des- 



Life of St. Augustine. 249 

troyed, his name alone will be an encour- 
agement and security for the defenders of 
the faith. 

The vacant see of St. Augustine had no 
successor. The African Province, the cher- 
ished jewel of the Roman empire, sparkled 
for a short time in the Vandal diadem. The 
Greek supplanted the Vandal, the Saracen 
supplanted the Greek, and the home of Au- 
gustine was blotted out from the map of 
Christendom. Northern Africa is the only 
land in which the light of the gospel, after 
a long and brilliant day, was totally extin- 
guished. The arts which had been cultivated 
by Rome and Carthage were buried in ignor- 
ance, the doctrine of Cyprian was forgotten ; 
till at length a people without discipline or 
knowledge or hope, submissively sunk under 
the yoke of the Arabian impostor. But 
Christian Africa produced one solitary flower, 
of which the bloom and fragrance escaped 
the desolating hurricane, and its seed has 
survived the dissolutions of time. In Bona — 
as Hippo is now called — the memory of 
Augustine endures as that of the "Gheber 



250 Life of St. Augustine. 

Saint, wno taught the religion of the Son of 
Mary, before the birth of Mohammed." 

The inhabitants of Hippo emigrated to 
foreign countries, abandoning all to the bar- 
barians, who destroyed the greater part of 
it. The Saint's body, which was buried in 
the church of St. Stephen, was respected by 
the barbarian heretics, and his library also 
escaped the fury of the invaders. Fifty 
years after his death, the bishops banished 
by Huneric carried this sacred treasure to 
the Island of Sardinia. There it remained 
till the year 720, when Luitpraud, the illus- 
trious and pious king of the Lombards, re- 
deemed it, at a great cost, from the Saracens, 
and transferred it with a gorgeous and de- 
vout ceremonial to the church of St. Peter 
at Pavia. The history of this translation 
was written by Oldrad, Archbishop of Milan, 
by order of the emperor Charlemagne. The 
holy relics were deposited with the utmost 
care, in a coffin of lead, enclosed in another 
of silver, the whole being secured in a sarco- 
phagus of marble, upon which in numerous 
inscriptions was engraved the name, Augus- 



Life of St. Atcgttstzne. 251 

tinus. In this condition the revered relics 
were discovered in 1695. They were proved 
authentic by the bishop of Pavia in 1728, 
whose decision was confirmed by His Holi- 
ness Benedict XIII. Christendom rejoiced 
when in the year 1830, Algiers, as the land 
of St. Augustine is now called, was con- 
quered by France, and the victorious banner 
of the cross again floated at Hippo (Bona). 
The first archbishop of the redeemed ter- 
ritory, Mons. Dupuch, appointed in 1838, 
petitioned the Holy See for permission to 
translate the relics of St. Augustine to the 
same place where arose the " Light of Doc- 
tors," whence it illumined the universe of 
faith, and ascended to shine with "those 
who instruct many unto justice," like stars, 
"in a firmament of glory." The pious 
request of the archbishop was granted, the 
relics were uncased, and properly examined 
and attested, the right arm, shoulder and 
blade bone being entire amidst the crumbled 
remains. This present epoch being evidently 
the evening hour of the setting sun of the 
two thousand-year-day, declining unto the 



252 Life of St. Augustine. 

sombre advent, when "the Son of Man 
will scarcely find faith," the canonized ark 
was borne across the deep blue Mediter- 
ranean waves without pomp or jubilee, and 
in a twilight such as glimmered in the 
death-chamber of the Saint, was laid on 
the ground where Monica wept and prayed, 
where Augustine praised the wondrous works 
of God, and offered the " clean oblation, 
rendering the name of the Lord glorious 
amongst the gentiles." On this anniversary 
of the natal day of the Holy Father, 28th 
of August, 1872, the pilgrim affections of 
devoted clients approach the shrine on 
which, as of old, is engraven " Augustinus :" 
there we meditate as he suggested, there 
we confess as he taught us, there we feel 
the unrest as he expressed it: " Domine, 
inquietum est cor meum, donee quiescat in te :" 
and we pray: O God, who by revealing 
the most hidden secrets of Thine wisdom 
to our blessed Father Augustine, and by 
kindling in his heart the flames of divine 
charity, didst renew in thy Church the 
miracle of a pillar of cloud and fire, grant 



Life of St. Augustine. 



253 



that by his guidance we may happily pass 
over the gulfs of the world, and deserve 
to reach the land oi eternal promise. 
Amen. 




CHAPTER XVI. 

St. Augustine's Writings. 

f^T. AUGUSTINE surpasses all the doc- 
jiy tors of the church in the abundance and 
J variety of his writings. His biographer 
and disciple, St. Possidius, reckons the pro- 
ductions of his pen, including sermons and 
letters, at ten hundred and thirty. With 
astonishment and admiration we there per- 
ceive how he devoted himself, with immense 
industry and with fervid religious zeal, to 
the duties of his apostolical station, to the 
defence of the church, and the promulgation 
of Christian knowledge and civilization. As 
his early and favorite study had been elo- 
quence, his style of oratory was magnificent, 
the more especially as he had for it a natural 
adaptation in the grasp of his mind, the in- 
tensity of his feelings, and the happy facility 
of his language. But he improved his natu- 
ral powers by earnest and protracted study, 
the only luxury he enjoyed, when not tasting 
254 



Life of St. Augustine. 255 

the sweets of heaven in the elevation of 
prayer. It was by no royal road that St. 
Augustine attained his lofty eminence, nor 
his force and unbounded influence, but by 
the rough and rugged path of untiring in- 
dustry. In all his works there is reach of 
thought, sublimity of conception, beauty and 
force of style. Even when the pressure of 
exciting and disturbing circumstances hin- 
dered that labor limce so essential to literary 
success, they will bear a favorable compari- 
son with productions of a similar kind in any 
age or language. They are not artificial or 
stately; they possess a surprising freshness 
and elasticity, and abound in fine natural 
strokes and bursts of eloquence. Freed 
from the trammels of artistic elaboration, he 
was more direct and fervid, and poured out 
in spontaneous beauty the fulness of a noble 
intellect and a generous heart. It is evident 
that he wrote, not with ambition to acquire 
honor and praise, but with moderation and 
humility, for the love of God and man. If 
he lacks the learning of Origen and Jerome, 
he surpasses them in originality, depth, and 



256 Life of St. Augustine. 

fulness of soul. Critics have blamed him 
for verbosity and frequent repetitions; his 
style also is found sometimes negligent, but 
this happened through design, for with in- 
genuous fidelity he says, "I would rather be 
censured by the grammarians than not under- 
stood by the people." 

His controversial works, in which he 
abounded, are able, earnest, and learned, 
without being dictatorial, sophistical, or vehe- 
ment. They bear down all opposition, and 
render truth invincible: like the imperial 
eagle, so often pictured in connection with 
his name, which, whether soaring in mid-air, 
or perched upon the summit of some lofty 
rock, sweeps the landscape with his piercing 
eyes, and falls with such unerring precision 
upon his prey, that it can no more escape 
bis talons than his lightning glance. In the 
grand work — the "City of God" — we admire 
a genius as vast as profound, which sees and 
judges at one glance, legislators and con- 
querors, kings and nations, the crimes and 
virtues of men; and traces with a rapid but 
impressive pencil the hand of God on human 



Life of St. Augustine. 257 

grandeur, and kingdoms which die like their 
masters. Never did uninspired writer con- 
dense so many facts with such little confu- 
sion, nor dispose such dissimilar materials 
with so much skill and regularity. Instead 
of a laborious antiquarian, who at a remote 
distance is obliged to grope his way by the 
dim and partial lights he has successively 
collected, he seems rather contemplating, 
from a lofty elevation, the shifting fortunes 
of fleeting empires, as they rose and passed 
in review before him; seizing and sketching 
their prominent features with the spirit and 
fidelity of a living observer. The excellence 
of all his works must be ascribed to the 
direction which his mind received from the 
impulse of religion. Naturally possessed of 
talents that would confer eminence on any 
individual, they derived dignity from the 
cause to which they were devoted. Gifted 
with a genius which seldom falls to the lot 
of the religious, and filled with a spirit of 
religion that does not often accompany men 
of genius, the rare union of these qualities 
produced an irresistible effect. Though his 
22* 



258 Life of St. Augustine. 

mind was stored with a vast accumulation 
of knowledge, which a splendid eloquence 
could adorn, the ardent zeal for religion by 
which it was exalted, rendered his natural 
sublimity more sublime. 

From the comprehensive mass of writings 
it is easy to determine the significance and 
influence of St. Augustine's highly gifted 
mind and his truly pious heart. His genius 
and religious disposition gave him such a 
character, that he was willingly esteemed 
as head and leading spirit of the African 
Church. Hence, around him, Aurelius of 
Carthage, the primate of Africa, Evodius of 
Uzala, Fortunatus of Cirta, Possidius of Ca- 
lama, Alypius of Tagestum, and many other 
bishops, gladly ranged themselves. Not only 
over his own age, but over all succeeding 
generations also, he has exercised an immea- 
surable influence, and does still, as far as 
the Church and theological science reach. 
In fact, no other uninspired teacher has mer- 
ited the title of "Light of Doctors," with 
which the Bishop of Hippo has been hailed 
throughout the universe of faith. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Synopsis of St. Augustine's Works. 



UR holy doctor, who had been involved 
in the errors of the Manichees, became 
T the champion of truth against them. He 
began at Rome his three books, " On Free- 
will" in which he demonstrates against them 
that article of faith ; and, as if he had foreseen 
the Pelagian heresy, he teaches that the good 
use of free-will is only from God, and an 
effect of his grace. His chief design in this 
work is to prove that the will of the creature 
is the only cause of sin, and he treats of 
original sin and its effects. In his book, 
" On the Manners of the Church" he shows, 
against the slanders of the Manichees, the 
sanctity of her doctrine and morals : he pro- 
duces several precedents of holy men, setting 
forth the examples of many monks and nuns, 
who, having severed themselves from the 

259 



260 Life of St. Augustine. 

world, spend their lives in constant abstinence 
and in exercises of piety; also of many holy 
prelates and priests, who keep themselves 
pure in the midst of a corrupt age ; and 
lastly, of an infinite number of lay-christians, 
who lead most exemplary lives. He says, 
that though there are some superstitious or 
wicked persons in the church, she reproves 
and instructs them. In another book called, 
" On the Manners of the Manic hees" he sets 
forth the hypocrisy, impiety, and licentious- 
ness of those heretics, and the falsehood of 
the boasted chastity and austerity of their 
elect. 

One of his best works against the Mani- 
chees is the elegant and excellent book, "On 
the Ti'ite Religion" which he addressed to 
Romanian, whom he had formerly engaged 
in that sect, who was his patron, and whose 
son, Licentius, was his beloved disciple. This 
work is justly admired by St. Paulinus ; it 
was the last which St. Augustine wrote 
before he was advanced to the priesthood, 
and in it appears how well he was already 
versed in the doctrine of our faith and in 



Life of SL Augustine, 261 

the writings of the fathers as well as in the 
heathen philosophers. He shows that reli- 
gion, which adores one God, and which 
teaches us to pay to him the true worship 
which he requires, is the only one thing that 
can lead us to truth, virtue and happiness, 
and that this is only the Catholic faith. He 
refutes idolatry, Judaism, and all heresies, and 
Manicheism in particular; with its doctrine 
of the evil principle, and of the origin of 
evil, which he proves to spring from the 
malice and defect of creatures. He teaches 
that sin is so essentially voluntary, that un- 
less it be so, it is not sin ; for otherwise all 
exhortations and corrections, and the very 
law of God itself would be useless. As to 
his saying, that miracles had then ceased, this 
he afterwards corrected, adding that he meant 
the ordinary and frequent gifts of miraculous 
powers ; for, as he says, even when he wrote 
this, he had seen some miracles performed at 
Milan. He proves that both authority and 
reason lead us to the Catholic Church, and 
insists on the sanctity of its morals ; he men- 
tions its innumerable martyrs and holy virgins, 



262 Life of St. Augustine. 

though some bad livers are tolerated in it, 
who are like chaff mingled with the corn on 
the barn-floor: he closes the work with an 
exhortation to the practice of charity towards 
God and our neighbor ; to that of religion 
and of all other virtues, and insists on the 
obligation of renouncing the theatre, and all 
the criminal and vain sports of the world. 

St. Augustine beautifies his sermons with 
scarce any other figures than interrogations, 
antitheses, and sonorous alliterations, to which 
his quick, lively imagination inclined him, 
and which were best relished by the Africans 
in that age. But he checked the turns of 
his fancy by the ingenious simplicity of his 
pious affecting sentiments, which make his 
discourses everywhere tender and persuasive. 
All his works plainly show how full his soul 
was of the love of God, and he knew very 
well how to express to others the strong 
sense he had of it. 

St. Augustine wrote in 393, in two books, 
an exposition of the Sermon of our Lord 
on the Mount, (Mat. v. vi. vii.) in which is 
comprised the perfection of the divine pre- 






Life of St. Augustine. 263 

cepts, which form the true Christian spirit. 
This work contains many useful lessons of 
virtue, especially against rash judgment. The 
holy father in the second book explains the 
Lord's Prayer. His one hundred and twenty- 
four tracts on the Gospel of St. John were 
begun by him in 416, and are homilies, which 
he preached every day of the week. In 
them he often confutes the Arians, Mani- 
chees, Donatists, and Pelagians. He shows 
the Donatists that their sufferings, of which 
they boasted, could never avail them, much 
less procure the glory of martyrs, because 
they suffered not for Christ, being out of his 
Church, and destitute of charity. He excel- 
lently inculcates the grievous evil of the least 
venial sin, which is deliberately committed, 
and easily multiplied, and the fruit and ad- 
vantages of divine love, the proof of which 
is the observance of the divine command- 
ments. In his ten tracts on the first epistle 
of St. John, he draws at length, the por- 
traiture of divine charity, and recommends 
the necessary fear of God's judgments, which 
paves the way to love in a soul. 



264 Life of St. Augustine. 

St. Augustine was a priest when he wrote 
his "Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Galatians" in which among other precepts 
he lays down discreet rules of charity to 
be observed in correcting others ; particu- 
larly, that it be always done out of a pure 
motive of charity, and that this be made 
appear to him who is corrected. About the 
same time he composed his "Exposition of 
several passages in the Epistle to the Romans" 
in answer to difficulties proposed to him : 
also, "The Beginning of an Exposition upon 
the Epistle to the Pomans" which he never 
finished, being deterred by the length and 
difficulty of the task. 

His "Enarrations or Discourses on the 
Psalms" which he finished in 415, take up 
the fourth tome of his works. He professes 
first to explain the literal sense, but adapts 
it almost always to Christ and his Church, 
and often gives only an exposition, that is 
spiritual or moral: after this, by allusions or 
allegories, he draws some moral instruction 
very profitable to the people. This work 
is not so much a literal exposition of the 



Life of St. Augustine. 265 

Psalter as a collection of Christian maxims 
and rules of piety, which the author usually 
enforces in a pathetic manner, especially on 
penance, divine love, contempt of the world, 
and prayer, St. Fulgentius owed his conver- 
sion to the reading of the discourse on the 
36th Psalm, in which he treats on the last 
judgment, &c. In these discourses he often 
speaks of the obligation of giving alms, 
for which he exhorts every one to set apart 
every tenth penny out of his revenues or 
gains. He frequently repeats what the rest 
of the fathers inculcate, that all possessions, 
which are superfluous, belong by right to the 
poor. He complains, that many measure 
their pretended necessities by the demands 
of luxury, vanity, pride and extravagance, 
and he says : " We shall have many things 
superfluous, if we content ourselves with 
necessaries ; but if we listen to vanity, no- 
thing will be enough. Seek what suffices 
for the work of God, not what inordinate 
passions crave. You say you have children. 
Count one more in your family. Give some- 
thing to Christ. Some lay up for their chil- 

23 



266 Life of St. Augustine, 

dren, and these for their children, and even 
for great-grandchildren. But what do they 
set apart for Christ? What for their own 
souls ? Among the children which they have 
on earth, let them count one brother, whom 
they have in heaven. Let them afford Him 
a share, to whom they owe all." 

St. Augustine wrote certain other books on 
the scripture not by way of sermons. The 
first, which he composed after his return 
to Africa, was "A Book upon Genesis'' in 
which he explains the history of the creation 
against the Manichees, and shows the origin 
of sin to be not from God, but from the malice 
of the creature, and the abuse which it makes 
of free-will. The distinction he here makes 
of four senses of the Holy Scripture, is 
famous ; the historical, which takes place in 
relating matters of fact ; the allegorical, which 
explains what is spoken by figures; analogi- 
cal, which compares together the Old and 
New Testaments, and refers the first to the 
latter; and the etiological, which points out 
the reasons of the actions and discourses 
related in the Scriptures. Some moderns 



Life of St. Augustine, 267 

add the auagogical sense, by which the sacred 
text is applied to the kingdom of heaven, to 
which it conducts us. St. Augustine, in his 
twelve books " Upon Genesis, according to 
the letter" pursues the same method as in 
the foregoing work, in expounding the his- 
tory of the creation against the Manichees; 
but starts many difficulties, which he leaves 
for a farther discussion. 

His seven books " On the Particular Ways 
of Speech in the Seven First Books of the Old 
Testament" are answers to several difficult 
questions on the Pentateuch, and the Books 
of Joshua and Judges. This is a curious and 
learned work, full of judicious remarks, in 
which he adheres to the literal sense. His 
"Notes upon yob" are short hints, which he 
wrote in the margin of the sacred text, and 
are a key to a literal exposition, discovering 
useful notions, which may be farther im- 
proved. The "Speculum, or Looking-glass" 
taken out of the Scripture, is a collection of 
passages for the direction of manners. His 
"Harmony" or book On the Agreement of the 
Evangelists, was composed about the year 



268 Life of St. Augustine. 

399. His two books "Of Questions on the 
Gospels" are of the same date, and contain 
the answers to forty-seven difficulties pro- 
pounded to him on the Gospel of St Mat- 
thew, and to fifty-one on that of St. Luke. 
These comments on several parts of the 
Old and New Testament make up the two 
parts of the third tome of the Father's works 
in the Benedictine edition ; and to them are 
prefixed his four books on " The Christian 
Doctrine!' In the first book he lays down 
general principles for the study of the Holy 
Scriptures, for the understanding of which he 
requires unfeigned faith and sincere charity. 
In the second he says, "That the degrees by 
which we may attain to the perfect know- 
ledge of true wisdom are, the fear of God, 
piety, knowledge, courage, counsel, and 
purity of heart." He sums up the canonical 
books of Scripture, and among the transla- 
tions thereof prefers the ancient Latin, as 
being the most literal and clearest; and 
among the Greek versions he adheres to the 
Septuagint. In the third book he gives rules 
for distinguishing the senses of the sacred 



Life of St. Augustine. 269 

text, especially the proper or literal from the 
figurative. In the fourth he says, "That 
as the Scriptures are to be expounded by 
preachers for the instruction of others, he 
advises that, in the first place, they prepare 
themselves for this function by prayer, and 
that their lives correspond with their ser- 
mons." 

The sixth tome of St. Augustine's works 
comprises his dogmatical books upon several 
points of morality and discipline. His book 
of "Eighty-three Questions" contains his reso- 
lutions of as many difficulties, upon different 
subjects on which he had been consulted. 
Simplician had no sooner succeeded St. Am- 
brose, who died on the 4th of April in 397, 
than he propounded to St. Augustine certain 
difficulties concerning the text of Paul's epis- 
tle to the Romans relating to predestination, 
and others regarding other parts of the Scrip- 
ture. St. Augustine, who had been lately 
consecrated bishop, answered him by his two 
books to Simplician, in which he corrected 
his former notions and expressions in his 
exposition of several passages in the epistle 

23* 



270 Life of St. Augustine. 

to the Romans written in 394, not sufficiently 
accurate on the subject of divine grace. He 
was convinced of the absolute necessity of 
that supernatural succor by that passage : 
"What hast thou, which thou has not re- 
ceived?" as he says in his book "On the Pre- 
destination of the Saints" and in that "On the 
Gift of Perseverance" And he cautions us, 
that he only wrote accurately upon the sub- 
ject of grace from the time he was made 
bishop. His book of "Eight Questions to 
Dulcitius" a tribune in Africa, contains an- 
swers to several difficulties proposed by him. 
In his Treatise "Concerning the belief of 
those things that are not cojtceived" he proves 
in favor of faith, that many things are be- 
lieved, that are not conceived or apprehended 
by the senses, as when we love a friend or 
a stranger merely upon the reputation of his 
probity. In his book "On Faith and Good 
Works" he confutes certain errors, as that 
no one that has been baptized can be 
damned eternally, &c. His book "On Faith 
and the Symbol" is an exposition of all the 
articles of the Creed which he delivered 



Life of St. Augustine. 271 

whilst he was a priest, in presence of a synod 
assembled at Hippo in 393. In his book 
" On Faith and Works!' he demonstrates 
that faith will not save us without good 
works. His "Enchiridio7t, or Manual," was 
addressed to Laurentius, a pious Roman 
Lord, brother of Dulcitius, who had desired 
of him an abridgment of the Christian reli- 
gion. St. Augustine shows that it is com- 
prised in the three virtues of faith, hope, 
and charity, by which we worship and glorify 
God, and render him the spiritual homage 
of our souls. 

In his book "On the Christian Combat" he 
exhorts us to arm ourselves against tempta- 
tions by a lively faith, mortification and the 
succor of grace. In that "On Catechising" 
the Ignorant" he prescribes the method of 
teaching the catechism usefully, so that the 
hearer may believe what is spoken, may hope 
what he believes, and may love what he 
hopes for. He would have it taught in such 
a manner as to be rendered agreeable and 
entertaining, and the grace of the Holy Ghost 
to be often implored in this holy function. 



272 Life of St. Augustine. 

His book "On the Care for the Dead'' was 
addressed to St. Paulinus in 421, of which 
work mention has been made in the life of 
that saint. His discourse "On Patience" is 
a recommendation of that virtue. In his 
sermon on the Creed, he mentions that all 
adult persons learned it by heart before they 
were baptized, and recited it every night and 
morning. That "On Fasting" shows its ad- 
vantages. In that " On the Plunder of Rome 
by Alaric" he shows that calamity to be an 
effect of a just and merciful Providence. He 
says that in 396 the Emperor Arcadius and 
all the citizens abandoned Constantinople 
one day, fearing it was going to be destroyed 
by a ball of fire, which appeared in the air ; 
but, that God having spared it through their 
tears and prayers, they soon returned to their 
former disorders. In his treatise " On the 
Prediction of Devils" he proves that their 
oracles could never foretell any thing but 
what they could learn by natural means, or 
in their natural causes, or by subtle con- 
jectures. 
The epistles of great men are generally 



Life of St. Augustine* 273 

interesting and curious, both for illustrating 
their history and giving the genuine por- 
traiture of their mind ; those of St. Augus- 
tine are particularly so, on account of the 
importance of the subjects treated in them. 
Several are so many excellent and learned 
treatises, and contain many admirable instruc- 
tions for the practice of perfect virtue. In 
them he mentions his own frequent indis- 
positions, and the habitual weakness of his 
constitution. In the thirty-eighth, to Profu- 
turus, he says he was confined to his bed 
under violent pain, but adds : " Though I 
suffer, yet I am well, because I am as God 
would have me to be ; for when we will not 
what He wills, it is we that are in the fault, 
as He can -neither do nor permit anything 
but what is just." In the thirty-sixth, he 
answereth Casulanus about the fast of Satur- 
day, that " the Church observes fasting on 
Wednesdays and Fridays, because the Jews 
formed their conspiracy to put Christ to 
death on Wednesday, and executed it on 
Friday. As to Saturday, he bids him follow 
the custom of the place where he should be, 



274 Life of St. Augustine. 

according to the rule of St. Ambrose, who 
told his mother, "When I am here (at Milan) 
I do not fast upon Saturdays ; when I am at 
Rome I fast upon that day." If the custom of 
the place be not uniform, as in many churches 
in Africa, he advises him to do as the bishop 
of the place should do or direct. He gives 
the same answer in his fifty-fourth, to Janu- 
arius. He says in the same, that they do 
well who communicate daily, provided it 
be done worthily, and with the humility of 
Zaccheus when he received Christ under his 
roof; but that they are also to be com- 
mended who sometimes imitate the humble 
centurion, and set apart only Sundays and 
Saturdays, or certain other days, for commu- 
nicating, in order to do it with greater devo- 
tion. He lays down this principle, that a 
custom universally received in the Church 
must be looked upon as settled by the 
apostles, or by general council, as the annual 
celebrations of Easter, Pentecost, the Ascen- 
sion and Passion of Christ. He says, that 
though the faithful at first communicated 
after supper, the apostles afterwards or- 



Life of St. Atigus tine. 275 

darned, that out of reverence to so great a 
sacrament, all should communicate fasting-. 

In the fifty-fifth, to the same Januarius, he 
speaks of Lent and of other laws of the 
Church, but says that certain rites and cus- 
toms may be sometimes practised by particu- 
lar persons, which are only tolerated by the 
Church, and may be sometimes such as are 
better rejected than observed. It would be 
tedious to mention all the important points 
of faith and discipline which he discusses in 
many of his epistles ; but devout persons will 
find nothing more agreeable than the perfect 
maxims of Christian virtue which he incul- 
cates. With what charity and tenderness 
does he comfort Crysinus under temporal 
losses and calamities, putting him in mind, 
that God is our only good, and a good which 
can never fail us, if we study truly to belong 
to him. If he suffers us to be afflicted in 
this world, it is only for our greater advan- 
tage. He explains the duties of a wife to- 
wards her husband in his letter to Ecdicia, 
showing her that she was obliged to conde- 
scend and conform to the humor of her 



276 Life of St. Augustine. 

morose husband, not only in duties which she 
essentially owed him, but also in things in- 
different: that she ought not to wear black 
clothes, seeing this gave him offence; and 
she might be humble in mind in rich and gay 
dress (provided it were modest, and not such 
as the apostle condemns) if he should insist 
upon her wearing it. He tells her she ought, 
in all things reasonable, to agree with her 
husband as to the manner of educating their 
son, and rather leave to him the chief care, 
when he required it. He severely chides 
her for having given goods and money to 
the poor without his tacit consent, and obliges 
her to ask his pardon for it, whether his un- 
willingness to allow her extraordinary chari- 
ties proceeded from a just and prudent care 
to provide for their son, or from any imper- 
fect motive. He exhorts her to gain him 
by meekness and charity, and to endeavor by 
all means to reclaim him from his adulteries 
and other vices, especially by praying for 
him. "Pray for him," says the saint, "and 
from the bottom of your heart. For tears 
are, as it were, the blood of a heart pierced 



Life of St. Augustine. 277 

with grief," &c. In like manner did he 
press upon husbands the respect, tender 
affection, and just condescension, which they 
owe to their wives ; and so with regard to 
other states. 

The documents he gave to Proba are more 
general. Proba ^Falconia, the widow of Pro- 
bus, who had been prefect of the praetorium, 
and consul in 371, withdrew into Africa with 
her mother-in-law Juliana, and her daughter 
Demetrias, after Alaric the Goth had plun- 
dered Rome. This holy widow, being sensi- 
ble that assiduous prayer was her chief duty, 
desired St. Augustine to send her some 
instructions in writing about the manner how 
she ought to pray. The saint told her she 
must learn to despise the world and its plea- 
sures, and sigh after the true happiness 
of divine grace and charity, which is to be 
the principal object of all our prayers : that 
prayer must be made by the earnest cry of 
the heart, and ought to be without ceasing, by 
the continued burning desire of the soul seek- 
ing God ; secondly, by having regular hours 
for daily devotions ; and thirdly, by frequently 

24 



278 Life of St. Augustine. 

raising our hearts to God during all our 
actions, with fervent aspirations, in imitation 
of the Egyptian monks. He gave her an 
exposition of the Lord's Prayer, adding, that 
we are to recommend to God not only our 
spiritual, but also our corporal necessities, 
especially our health, that we may consecrate 
it to the divine service ; for without health, 
all other temporal blessings avail us little; 
but this and other temporal favors we must 
ask with resignation to the divine will, and 
with a view to our spiritual advantage, lest 
in punishment of our impatience, God should 
give us them when they are pernicious to 
our souls, as he granted in anger the flesh 
meat, which the Jews in the wilderness asked 
with murmuring, and at the same time visited 
them with the chastisement of their gluttony 
and rebellion ; whereas he refused to hear 
St. Paul, because a trial was more expedient 
for him. 

We have a remarkable instance of St 
Augustine's meekness and humility, in his 
controversy with St. Jerome. The latter, in 
his exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to 



Life of St. Augustine. 279 

the Galatians, had explained the passage of 
his "withstanding and blaming St. Peter for 
withdrawing from the table of the Gentiles 
tipon the arrival of the Jewish converts" as 
if this had been a mere collusion between 
the apostles to prevent the scandal of either 
party, and as if St. Paul did not think St. 
Peter in any fault ; because he allowed the 
observance of such legal ceremonies at that 
time no less than St. Peter did. St. Augus- 
tine in 395, being only priest, wrote to him 
against this exposition, showing, that though 
the apostles certainly agreed in doctrine, yet 
in this action of St. Peter there was an 
indiscretion or inadvertence, which gave to 
the gentile converts an occasion of scandal; 
and that if St. Paul did not blame him seri- 
ously he must have been guilty of an officious 
lie ; and by admitting such a fallacy, any 
passage in the Scriptures may be eluded in 
the like manner. This letter of St. Aueus- 
tine happened, by the detention and death of 
the bearer, never to be delivered. In 397, 
St. Augustine, being then bishop, wrote to 
St. Jerome another letter upon the same 



280 Life of St. Augustine, 

subject, which, by another accident, fell into 
the hands of several persons in Italy, and 
was only sent accidentally to St. Jerome in 
Palestine ; at which St. Jerome took offence. 
Several other letters passed between them 
on this affair, in which St. Augustine shows 
that the apostles tolerated, for some time, the 
ceremonies of the Jewish law, so they might 
be abrogated by insensible degrees, and the 
synagogue buried with honor. He conjures 
St. Jerome by the meekness of Christ to 
pardon what he had offended him in, thank- 
fully submits himself to his reprehension and 
reproof, professing himself always ready to 
be taught by him as his master, and corrected 
by him as his censor, and desires to drop the 
inquiry, if it caused any breach of friendship, 
that they might provide for their mutual sal- 
vation. "I entreat you again and again," 
says he, in another letter, " to correct me 
confidently when you perceive me to stand 
in need of it; for, though the office of a 
bishop be greater than that of a priest, yet 
in many things is Augustine inferior to 
Jerome." The saint imputes the whole blame 



Life of St. Augustine. 281 

of this dispute to himself, and his own negli- 
gence, because he had not added, that the 
toleration of the legal rites only belonged 
to that time when the New Law began 
to be promulgated. St. Jerome afterwards 
tacitly came over to St. Augustine's opinion, 
which is confirmed by the general suffrage 
of theologians. St. Augustine grieved ex- 
ceedingly to see the debate betwixt Jerome 
and Ruffinus carried on with warmth, and 
conjured them with the greatest tenderness 
imaginable to forbear invectives. "Could I 
meet you both together in any place," said 
he, " I would fall down at your feet, I would 
weep as long as I were able. I would be- 
seech as much as I love you, sometimes each 
for himself, then each one for the other, and 
for many others, especially the w r eak for 
whom Christ died." He always dreaded the 
itch of vainglory in literary contests, in which 
men love an opinion, as he says, " Not be- 
cause it is true, but because it is their own, 
and they dispute, not for the truth, but for 
the victory." For his part, he was so much 
upon his guard to shun this rock, that charity 

24* 



282 Life of St, Ail otis tine. 

and humility were nowhere more visibly the 
governing principles of his heart, than on 
such occasions. 

He trembled always at the danger of 
secret complacency, or vainglory, amidst the 
praises of others, Thus he writes of this 
temptation in his Confessions : "We are daily 
assaulted, O Lord, with these temptations ; we 
are tempted without ceasing. The tongues 
of men are as a furnace, in which we are 

daily tried Thou knowest the groans of 

my heart to Thee concerning this thing, and 
the floods of my eyes. For I cannot easily 
discover the advances that I make towards 
being more clean from this plague, and I very 
much dread my hidden sins, which are seen 
by thine eyes, but not mine. In other temp- 
tations I have some way by which I may try 
myself; but none at all in this." 

He complains bitterly in a letter to Aure- 
lius, Archbishop of Carthage, how subtly and 
imperceptibly this dangerous vice insinuates 
itself into our souls, adding: "This I write, 
to discover my evils to you, that you may 
know in what things to pray to God for my 



Life of St. Augustine. 283 

i.ifirmities." Sincere humility made him love, 
at every turn, to confess his ignorance, and 
no less readily than candidly, often to say, " I 
know it not;" an answer which does more 
honor to a true genius than the greatest 
display of wit and learning ; yet, which costs 
so much to many, that they often turn them- 
selves into every shape, rather than make 
this humble acknowledgment. 

From this sincere humility, St. Augustine 
wrote his Confessions > or praises of the divine 
mercy and justice, about the year 397, not 
long after he was made bishop, when all 
the world admired his sanctity, and he en- 
joyed the greatest honor and fame. Pos- 
sidius assures us that his, chief design in 
composing this work was to study his own 
humiliation, and to endeavor that no one 
should think of him above what he confessed 
himself to be. He therefore divulged all the 
sins of his youth in the first nine books, and 
in the tenth published the many imperfec- 
tions to which he was still subject, humbly 
begging the intercession of all Christians in 
his behalf. The saint himself, when sending 



284 Life of St. Augustine. 

this book to Count Darius, tells him that 
"The caresses of this world are more dan- 
gerous than its persecutions. See what I 
am from this book : believe me, who bear 
testimony of myself, and regard not what 
others say of me. . . . Praise with me the 
goodness of God for the great mercy he 
hath shown in me, and pray for me, that 
he will be pleased to finish what he hath 
begun in me, and that he never suffer me 
to destroy myself." He has interspersed in 
it sublime and solid reflections on the great- 
ness and goodness of God, the vanity of the 
world, and the miseries of sin, with most 
useful instructions for furthering the spiritual 
life. Ever since this work has been written, 
it has been always read by pious persons 
with delight and admiration. The saint 
having given an account of his own actions 
in the first ten books, in the last three takes 
occasion to speak of his love for the Holy 
Scriptures, and discusses several metaphysi- 
cal difficulties concerning time, and the crea- 
tion of the world, or the first part of the 
history of Genesis, against the Manichees. 



Life of St. Augustine. 285 

Besides the works above mentioned, which 
St. Augustine composed against the Mani- 
chees, he wrote, in 391, soon after he was 
ordained priest, his book "On the Advantage 
of Believing" to reclaim his friend Honoratus 
from that heresy. In this work he over- 
throws the Manichean principle : " The light 
of reason suffices to discover to us the 
truth, without faith, or the use of authority." 
He shows that it is wisdom, not rash cre- 
dulity, to believe those that are worthy of 
credit, even in matters of civil life ; and 
especially, that true wisdom never can be 
attained without consulting authority. He 
demonstrates that the authority of the 
Catholic Church justly deserves and com- 
mands our respect and assent, and says : 
" Why shall we make any difficulty to throw 
ourselves upon the authority of the Catho- 
lic Church, which hath always maintained 
herself by the succession of bishops in the 
apostolic sees, (in spite of all the endeavors 
of heretics condemned by her,) by the 
people's faith, by the decisions of councils, 
and by the authority of miracles? It is 



286 Life of St. Augustine. 

either a matchless impiety or an indiscreet 
arrogancy, not to acknowledge her doctrine 
for the rule of our faith." 

About the same time he composed his 
book, "Of the Two Souls" against the error of 
the Manichees, asserting that every man has 
two souls, the one good, of a divine substance, 
and the other evil, of the nature of darkness 
peculiar to the flesh. Among the twelve dis- 
ciples whom Manes sent to preach in dif- 
ferent nations, the most famous was Adiman- 
tus: he had written a book in Latin, in which 
he pretended to show an opposition between 
the Old and New Testaments. This work 
St. Augustine refuted by his book, "Against 
AdimdntMs" justifying the agreement be- 
tween the passages that were objected. 
Having refuted the disciple, he took the 
master in hand, by his book against Manes' 
Epistle of the Foundation, in which that here- 
siarch had couched the principal articles, 
which he proposed to his followers. St. Au- 
gustine gives us his words from that part 
of the letter, which he refutes and demon- 
strates the principle to be advanced by him 



Life of St. Augustine. 287 

without the least shadow of proof, and to be 
contrary even to reason and common sense. 
The saint lays down his reasons for adhering 
to the Catholic Church in these terms: "Seve- 
ral motives keep me in the bosom of the 
Catholic Church: the general consent of 
nations and people ; an authority grounded 
upon miracles, upheld by hope, perfected by 
charity, and confirmed by antiquity: the suc- 
cession of bishops from St. Peter to our time; 
and the name of the Catholic Church, which 
is so peculiar to the true Church that though 
all heretics call themselves Catholics, yet 
when you ask in any country whatever, 
where the Catholics meet, they dare not show 
the place of their assemblies." He says, 
"I would not believe the gospel, if the 
authority of the Church did not move me 
thereto." 

St. Augustine, in his first books "Against 
Faustus" justifies the passages of the New 
Testament relating to the genealogy of 
Christ, and the mystery of the incarnation, 
which Faustus pretended to have been falsi- 
fied: and in the fifth, reproaches the Elect 



288 Life of St. Augustine. 

among the Manichees with voluptuousness 
and avarice, notwithstanding their hypocrisy, 
and opposes to them the sincere virtue and 
penitential lives of many Catholics. From 
the sixth to the twenty-third book he defends 
the Old Testament, after which he returns 
aeain to the New. In the twentieth, he 
takes occasion from the Jewish sacrifices, to 
reproach the Manichees with paying a super- 
stitious honor to the sun, moon, and stars. 
Faustus objected to the Catholics their^vene- 
ration and festivals of martyrs. To this St. 
Augustine answered, that "They honored the 
martyrs in order to partake in their merits, 
to be assisted by their prayers, and- excited 
to imitate their example ; but never paid to 
them the worship of latria, which is due to 
God alone, nor offered sacrifices to them, but 
only to God in thanksgiving for their graces." 
In his two books " Against Felix" or the 
acts of a conference with him, he confutes the 
Manichean system concerning the nature of 
God, and the origin of evil. Soon after, he 
composed against these heretics a book, " On 
the Nature of God" in which he handles the 



Life of St. Augustine. 289 

same subject more fully. Secundinus, a Mani- 
chee, having by a letter urged St. Augustine 
to return to that sect, the saint answered him 
by a book, which he preferred to all his other 
writings against those heretics. He gives in 
it the reasons of his conversion, and over- 
throws the principle of Manicheism. This 
work is entitled "Against Secundinus!' Seve- 
ral years after this, an anonymous book of 
some ancient Marcionite, or other such here- 
tic, who denied that God was the author of 
the Old Testament and Creator of the world, 
being put into the hands of several persons 
at Hippo, St Augustine confuted it about the 
year 420, by his two books, "Against ths 
Adversary of the Law and the Prophets!' 

His conflict with the Arians was begun by 
an Answer he published in 417, to an Arian 
sermon, which contained the chief objections 
against the divinity of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost. His Conference with Maximi- 
nus, an Arian bishop, and his two books against 
him, which were written to check his boast- 
ings after the conference, were the fruits of 
his labors in 428. His fifteen books on the 

25 



290 Life of St. Augustine.' 

Trinity were begun in 400, and finished in 
416, and are rather a dogmatical than a con- 
troversial treatise on that mystery. In the 
beginning he lays down just cautions against 
any false idea of God, by either apprehending 
Him as a corporeal substance, or as a limited 
spirit, like a soul, consequently liable to im- 
perfections ; for God is infinite, immense, and 
incomprehensible. In the first eight books he 
proves the unity of the divine essence, and the 
trinity of the persons; he discourseth in the 
fourth of the incarnation of the Son, and in 
the fifth he refutes the sophisms of heretics. 
In the latter books he endeavors to explain 
the Trinity, of which he finds an imperfect 
emblem in man, namely, in his spirit or soul, 
his knowledge of himself, and his love of 
himself: and again in his memory, under- 
standing, and will, three powers of the same 
mind, though these, and all other representa 
tions, are infinitely imperfect. He teaches 
that the Son is begotten of the Father by 
his understanding, or knowledge of himself, 
(he being the Father's internal real subsisting 
Word, consubstantial to him,) and the Holy 






Life of SL Augustine, 291 

Ghost proceeds by his will, as he is the eternal 
subsisting love of the Father and the Son. 
To these polemical writings in the eighth 
tome are prefixed his Treatise against the 
Jews, and his succinct history of heresies, 
addressed to Quodvultdeus, Deacon of Car- 
thage, and containing a list of eighty-eight 
heresies, beginning with the Simonians, and 
ending with the Pelagians. 

The great work "Of the City of God" 
consists of twenty-two books, and is a very 
learned apology for the Christian religion. 
In the first ten books the saint refutes the 
slanders of the heathens, showing that the 
Christian religion was not the cause of the 
fall of Rome; for the very barbarians who 
plundered it granted a privilege of asylum 
to the churches of the apostles, and the 
sepulchres of martyrs, which no heathens 
did to the temples of their gods. St. Au- 
gustine shows that temporal calamities are 
often advantageous to the virtuous; many 
under these gave heroic proofs of patience, 
chastity, and all virtues ; whereas the boasted 
Lucretia and Cato murdered themselves out 



292 Life of St. Augustine. 

of cowardice and impatience under afflic- 
tions. He mentions the impiety and vices 
of the Pagan Romans, the obscenities prac- 
tised in their religious rites, the cruelty of 
their civil wars, much more horrible than 
that of the Goths : the voluptuousness, 
avarice, and ambition of the latter ages 
of the . republic, which he dates from their 
building of the first amphitheatre, which 
Scipio Nasica prudently, but in vain, op- 
posed. He shows that greater calamities 
had often befallen the world in the reign 
of idolatry; and that the enlargement of 
the Roman empire could not be ascribed 
to any idols. Though great empires, with- 
out justice, are but great robberies, (which 
he proves at large,) he thinks that God 
might give the Pagan Romans victory, as a 
temporal recompense of some moral virtues; 
setting before our eyes, that if the imperfect 
virtues of heathens are so rewarded, what 
will be the recompense of true virtue in 
eternal glory ! Confuting the doctrine of 
destiny, he shows that God's foreknowledge 
agrees with man's free-will, and he gives 



Life of St. Augustine. 293 

an admirable description of the happiness 
of a virtuous prince, which he places alto- 
gether in his piety, not in temporal felicity, 
though he mentions and sets forth the tem- 
poral prosperity of Constantine and Theo- 
dosius. He shows the ridiculous folly of 
the theology and pretended divinities of the 
heathens. He refutes the theology of their 
philosophers, even of the Platonists, whom 
he prefers to the rest, but who all honored 
demons as subaltern deities ; whereas no 
Christian priest offers sacrifice to Peter, 
Paul, or Cyprian, but to God upon the 
monuments of martyrs. He proves all the 
demons of the heathen philosophers to be 
evil spirits. Good angels neither require 
adoration nor sacrifices, and miracles per- 
formed by their interposition are wrought 
by God's power, who by them makes him- 
self known to men. 

In the following twelve books he treats of 
"The two cities of God and the world;" des- 
cribing their origin, their progress, and their 
respective ends. He passes from the diver- 
sity of good and bad angels to speak of their 

25* 



294 Life of St. Augustine. 

creation, and that of the visible world. Next 
he proceeds to the creation of man, and his 
fall. He pursues the history of the two cities 
through the first patriarchs, from Cain and 
Abel to Noe's flood, making the ark to repre- 
sent the Church, and illustrating his narrative 
with curious allegories and reflections. In 
the last chapter of the fourteenth book he 
observes, that self-love in contempt of God, 
and the love of God in contempt of self-love, 
have built these two opposite cities, and 
characterize and. distinguish their citizens. 
This history he carries down to Solomon, then 
resumes the history of the world in that of 
the ancient monarchies, beginning with the 
Assyrians in the East, and the small kingdom 
of Sicyon in Greece, the first two that were 
erected. He everywhere enlivens his narra- 
tion with ingenious reflections, and closes it 
with the triumph of Christ over hell, in his 
incarnation and death, and the establishment 
of his Church, which is victorious over perse- 
cutions and heresies, and will endure till his 
second coming at the last day. In the nine- 
teenth book he treats of the latter end of 



Life of St. Augustine. 295 

both cities ; the inhabitants of each aim at 
sovereign felicity, or the chief good; but those 
of the terrestrial know so little of it, that 
the wisest among their philosophers were 
at a loss to find in what it consisted, Varro 
reckoning two hundred and eighty-eight dif- 
ferent opinions among them about it: only 
the true religion discovers to men this most 
important truth, and shows that it consists in 
eternal life, and that we cannot be happy in 
this life, but only in hope, which gives a kind 
of anticipation of the peace and joy to come. 
In the twentieth book he gives a description 
of the last judgment, and the general resur- 
rection. In the twenty-first, he speaks of 
the end of the terrestrial city, and of the 
horrible torments of hell, especially their 
eternity, which he proves clearly from our 
most holy faith ; whence, he says, the Church 
never prays for the salvation of devils or 
damned souls ; though he acknowledges tem- 
porary chastisements for the purgation of 
smaller sins after death, in those who here 
belonged to Christ, and did not die separated 
from him by any grievous sin. The subject 



296 Life of St. Augustine. 

of his last book is the glorious immortality 
of the saints in the heavenly city. He men- 
tions the qualities of glorified bodies, and 
proves their resurrection from that of Christ, 
and from the faith of the Church, confirmed 
by undoubted prophecies and miracles ; he 
relates several wrought in his own time by 
the relics of saints, both at Milan and in 
Africa, to some of which he had been an 
eye-witness. He finishes the portraiture of 
the happiness of the blessed, by a sketch of 
what their souls will enjoy. " How great," 
said he, "will be that felicity that shall be 
disturbed with no evil, and where no other 
business shall be followed but that of sing- 
ing the praises of God, who shall be all in 
all ? ... . Every inhabitant of this divine city 
shall have a will perfectly free, exempt from 
all evil, filled with all manner of good, enjoy- 
ing without intermission the delights of an 
immortal felicity, without remembrance either 
of his faults, or of his miseries, otherwise 
than to bless his Redeemer for his deliv- 
erance." 

Our holy doctor, in his "Retractations" 



Life of St. Augustine. 297 

gives this caution concerning his two trea- 
tises "Against Lying" that they are both so 
intricate, he had once some thoughts of 
suppressing them. But this seems to re- 
gard only some of his mystical interpreta- 
tions of certain scriptural examples ; for 
the principles which he lays down are most 
just and important. The Origenists, with 
Plato, maintained that officious lies are law- 
ful for a good and necessary end. To con- 
fute this pernicious doctrine St. Augustine 
composed, in 395, his book "On Lying." 
He defines lying to be a disagreement 
between a man's words and his mind, for 
to lie is to speak what we do not think. 
He takes into consideration the objections 
brought from examples of lies mentioned 
in the Old Testament, as of Jacob, Judith, 
&c., and answers, that the patriarchs, who 
seem to have lied, did not intend that what 
they said should be understood in the usual 
sense, but that they meant to designate by 
a prophetical spirit those things that were 
signified by their actions, which were figura- 
tive. He throws out this answer chiefly 



298 Life of St. Augustine. 

for fear of any concessions which the Mani- 
chees might abuse to insult the patriarchs, 
or the Old Testament; but adds, both in 
this and the following treatise, that if this 
solution appear not satisfactory, we must 
condemn such lies, as we do David's sins; 
and says that at least the Holy Ghost never 
approves any example of lying, unless it 
be by comparing it with a greater evil. He 
then demonstrates that we must never do 
the least evil, whatever good may be pro- 
cured by it; and it is clear, both from the 
Holy Scriptures and the light of reason, 
that all lying is essentially a sin. Whence 
he concludes, that no lie is ever to be told, 
to preserve our chastity, or life, or that of 
others; or secure the salvation of our neigh- 
bor, as to procure baptism for our dying 
child, or for any other reason or good what- 
ever; it never being lawful to commit adul- 
tery, theft, or any other sin, for such an end. 
Death and all torments ought to be more 
eligible than the least lie : nor can the evils 
of others be imputed to us, which we cannot 
prevent without sin. 



Life of St. Augustine. 299 

His book, "Against Lying to Consentius," 
was composed long after the former, upon 
the same principles, in the year 420, and is 
clearer and more methodical. He wrote it 
to confute both the error of the Priscillianists, 
(who held lying, even to conceal their reli- 
gious sentiments, lawful,) and that of some 
Catholics of Spain, who pretended lying 
allowable, in order to detect those heretics, 
upon which case Consentius had consulted 
him. The holy doctor shows we are bound 
often to conceal the truth, but must never 
prevent any evils by lying ; and mentions one 
Firmus, bishop of Tagaste, who having con- 
cealed an innocent man from the pagan 
judge, chose rather to suffer the rack than to 
discover, or by lying, to say he knew not 
where he was. In such cases he will have 
us only raise our hearts earnestly to God, 
and commit to him the event. That the 
Scripture condemns all kinds of lies, is what 
the whole Catholic Church teaches. Some 
have pretended to justify equivocations by his 
mystical interpretations of the passages relat- 
ing to Jacob, and others ; some of which, 



300 Life of St. Augustine. 

Natalis Alexander, out of respect to the 
memory of great men, stretched so far as to 
give his adversary a handle for wrangling on 
this question. But St. Augustine proposes 
his first answer to those examples in such a 
manner as not to rest the cause upon this 
solution ; for he adds, that, " if it seems not 
satisfactory as to any of those ancient saints, 
and if they seem to be excused from a lie, 
they cannot be excused from sinning, unless 
upon the plea of invincible ignorance." 
"God, who is truth itself, can never approve 
any kind of lying; nor can any thing be 
more destructive of civil society and com- 
merce, than that doctrine which allows it 
by principle. It would be more eligible to 
live among dumb persons than in a nation of 
liars." Artificial lies, or mental reservations 
and equivocations, are not less condemned 
by the saint, both in his definitions, and in 
the whole force of his reasoning, than any 
other kind of lies, and are the more perni- 
cious, as they are more artfully disguised. 
To allow them, in religious matters or oaths, 
on any account whatever, is an error con- 



Life of St. Augustine. 301 

demned by the Catholic Church. By the 
same principle is demonstrated the essential 
iniquity of all lying, in whatever circumstan- 
ces, and on all subjects. Let those who dis- 
pute this point have dealings with persons of 
this cast, who in all affairs, judged by them- 
selves of sufficient importance to require it, 
study by artful equivocations to raise mists 
for deception ; then experience will help to 
open their eyes, and make them desire, that 
persons of such principles should carry them 
marked on their forehead, as princes, by 
declaring open war, warn enemies to stand 
upon their guard. How easily would these 
new doctors have disengaged St. Augustine 
in all his difficulties, how to save the life of 
the innocent man, and rescue the dying un- 
baptized infant out of the hands of infidels? 
His writings against the Donatists fill the 
ninth tome of his works. The first of these 
is the "Hymn or Psalm Abecedarius" which 
is divided into two parts, each of which begins 
with a different letter of the alphabet, con- 
taining a short account and confutation of 
this schism, expressed in terms adapted to 

26 



302 Life of St. Augustine. 

the capacity of the common people who were 
taught this hymn. The saint composed it as 
an antidote against the heresy, upon his first 
coming to Hippo. Parmenianus, the suc- 
cessor of Donatus in the see of Carthage, 
had been confuted by St. Optatus, but left 
behind him a letter, which he had written 
against Tichonius, a person of his own sect, 
who had published some scruples which he 
had concerning the universality of the church 
foretold by the prophets. This work of Par- 
menianus was looked upon by the Donatists 
as a complete justification of their schism. 
St. Augustine therefore took it in hand about 
the year 401, and clearly confuted it by his 
three books "Against Parmenianus" in which 
he shows that the Church of Christ, accord- 
ing to the prophets, is the Church of all na- 
tions, and is not defiled by the society of 
some wicked person living in her commu- 
nion ; and he confutes the slanders of the 
Donatists concerning the origin of their sect. 
In his seven books "On Baptism" against 
the Donatists, composed about the same 
time, he shows the mistake of St. Cyprian, 



Life of St. Augustine. 303 

and proves that this sacrament may be validly 
conferred by heretics, and cannot be reite- 
rated when it has been duly administered 
by them, any more than when it has been 
administered by sinners within the pale of 
the Church. Petilianus, who had formerly 
been a lawyer, and was made by the Dona- 
tists bishop of Cirtha in Numidia, acquired 
a great reputation in his party by his noisy 
declamatory . eloquence. An Epistle which 
he published against the Catholics drew from 
St. Augustine three books, entitled "Against 
Petilianus!' In the second and third book, 
the saint proves the Church must be uni- 
versal, and spread throughout the world ; 
and takes off the force of Petilianus' s objec- 
tions, borrowed from misapplied passages 
of Scripture. 

The saint's treatise " On the Unity of the 
Church" was a pastoral charge addressed 
to his own flock, in which he points out the 
true Church by this mark — that it is one and 
catholic, or universal, and spread over the 
whole earth: consequently it could not be 
confined to Africa, to the house of Lucilla, 



304 Life of St. Augustine. 

or to a few lurkers at Rome. Cresconius, 
a Donatist, and a grammarian by profession, 
having written against him in defence of Peti- 
lianus, the saint, about the year 409, an- 
swered in four books, retorting all the argu- 
ments, and the conduct of the Donatists in 
the schism of the Maximianists, by which he 
invincibly demonstrated that they condemned 
themselves. In his book " On the Unity of 
Baptism" against Petilianus, he confutes, by 
the authority and practice of the universal 
Church, the error of the Donatists in reit- 
erating the sacrament of baptism, and shows 
that the Church is composed of good and 
bad, but that the good are not to be found 
out of its pale. He allows, indeed, those to 
be brethren in the eyes of God, who are in 
the true Church in the sincere desire of their 
hearts, and use all endeavors impartially to 
discover it, but are deprived of its external 
communion merely by the circumstance of 
invincible ignorance, though God alone can 
be judge of this interior disposition; but the 
Church only considers exterior acts or cir- 
cumstances, as the direct object of her laws 



Life of St. Augustine. 305 

of discipline. This maxim of St. Augustine 
appears from the very definition which he 
gives of a heretic, viz : that " he is a person 
who by criminal passions, or with a view to 
temporal motives, publishes or embraces an 
erroneous doctrine in faith." Also from his 
letter to Glorius, Eleusius, Felix, and Gram- 
maticus, all Donatists, written about the year 
398, where he says : " When they who de- 
fend their false opinion with no obstinate 
malice, having received it from their parents, 
and diligently seek the truth, ready to be 
corrected when they have found it, are no 

way to be ranked among heretics If I 

did not think you such, perhaps I should not 
trouble you with my letters." 

St. Augustine compiled a "Breviculum, or 
Abridgment" of the conference of Carthage. 
He composed and inscribed to the lay-part 
of the Donatists a treatise after the confer- 
ence, in which he set off all the advantages 
which the Catholics had gained by it, and the 
shifts and evasions which the Donatist bish- 
ops had used to prevent its being held, and 
in it to stave off the main business. Gauden- 

26* 



306 Life of St. Augustine. 

tius, one of the Donatist disputants in the 
conference, continued so obstinate in defence 
of his sect, that he threatened to burn him- 
self with his church, rather than to suffer the 
emperor's officers to restore his church to 
the Catholics. St. Augustine refuted two 
letters which he had written, the first of 
which was an impious defence of suicide. In 
418, St. Augustine being obliged to go to 
Caesarea, made a moving sermon on the 
unity of the Church, in the presence ot 
Emeritus, the Donatist bishop, who was one 
of the chief men of his party, and had spoken 
most in the conference of Carthage, where 
he was one of the commissioners or dis- 
putants. Two days after, St. Augustine, St. 
Alypius and others, held a conference in his 
presence, but he refused to speak, and per- 
sisted obstinately, though his friends and 
relations, and almost his whole flock had 
embraced the Catholic faith. 

The tribune Marcellinus, who had presided 
at the conference at Carthage, being per- 
plexed by certain objections started by the 
Pelagians, consulted St. Augustine about 



Life of St. Augustine. 307 

them. The holy bishop answered him by 
three books entitled, "On the Demerit of 
Sins, and their Remission" otherwise, "On the 
Baptism of Children" proving in the first, 
that man is become subject to death only by 
the demerit of sin ; that the sin of Adam has 
infected all his race, and that children are 
baptized in order to obtain the remission 
of original sin. In the second, he teaches 
that all men can avoid every actual sin ; yet 
that no one lives entirely exempt from all 
smaller sins, for the remission of which we 
are always to pray. In the third, he answers 
some objections. 

Marcellinus did not understand how men 
have the power of avoiding all venial sins 
if no man ordinarily does it. St. Augustine, 
in order to give him satisfaction, composed 
his book "On the Spirit and the Letter" in 
which he warmly disputes against the enemies 
of divine grace, shows by several examples, 
that there are things possible, which never 
come to pass, and explains the succor of 
divine grace, which is shed by the Holy 
Ghost into our hearts, and which makes us 



308 Life of St. Augustine. 

love and accomplish those good actions which 
are commanded us. He shows that grace 
does not destroy or impair free-will, but 
strengthens it, gives it exertion, or acts in 
supernatural virtue. In reconciling grace and 
free-will he acknowledges a mystery, which 
he will not be so presumptuous as to pretend 
to fathom, but cries out with the apostle : 
"O the depth, &c." Rom. xi. $$. And, "Is 
there any injustice in God?" Rom. ix. 14. 
This concord of grace and free-will he every- 
where calls a most difficult question, and 
frequently answers it only by having recourse 
to this exclamation of St. Paul. He observes 
that Pelagius sometimes gave the name of 
grace to free-will itself, because it is a gift 
of God ; and that he sometimes spoke of the 
external grace of preaching, and its impres- 
sion upon the heart, which he called an inte- 
rior grace; but that he used these speeches 
only, that he might disguise his heresy under 
subtle evasions the more easily to deny the 
necessity of true interior grace, which he said 
was only given to render the practice of 
virtue more easy, but was not necessary. 



Life of St. Augustine. 309 

A book written by Pelagius, in which the 
poison of this heresy was concealed under 
these equivocations, was put into St. Augus- 
tine's hands by Timasius and James, tv/o 
young men eminent for their birth and learn- 
ing, who had been disciples of Pelagius, but 
were converted by our holy doctor, who 
refuted that work by his book called "On 
Nature and Grace!' In this he detects those 
artifices, and proves that nature is not blama- 
ble, though it is weakened by the corruption 
of sin and stands in need of grace to deliver 
it, to enlighten the understanding, and to 
enable the will both to desire and to do 
good. About the same time he composed 
his small treatise "On the Perfection of Right- 
eousness!' showing against a sophistical book 
of Celestius, that for a man to pass his whole 
life without ever committing the least sin, is a 
grace, which God does not usually grant to 
the greatest saints ; so that it is ridiculous to 
believe that man can compass this by the sole 
strength of free-will. 

Upon the news of Pelagius having justi- 
fied himself in the council of Diospolis, St. 



310 Life of St. Augustine. 

Augustine suspected what the cause was, 
but for want of proofs waited till he received 
the acts of that council. Upon which he 
wrote in 417, his book "On the Acts of Pela- 
gins" in which he manifestly detected his 
cheats at the synod of Diospolis. In 418, 
after the Pelagian heresy, with its authors, 
was condemned by several councils and by 
Pope Zosimus, he composed against it his 
book "On the Grace of Jesus Christ" and 
another "On Original Sin" proving against 
these heretics the necessity of grace for 
doing good works and attaining to Christian 
perfection; and the universal contagion of 
the sin of Adam, and the necessity of its 
remission by baptism. His two books "On 
Marriage and Concupiscence" were compiled 
in 419, in order to remove a peevish objec- 
tion of the Pelagians, that if concupiscence be 
an effect of sin, and if men are born in sin, 
marriage must be a sin. 

In 420 he published four books " On the 
Soul and its Original" addressed to one 
Victor, a convert from the Donatists, to 
refute several errors concerning the propa- 



Life of St. Augustine. 311 

gation of original sin in the soul, and to 
prove that the doctrine of its preexistence 
in another state before this in the body, can- 
not be maintained by any Catholic, and that 
the soul is a spiritual substance. He says, 
that, though this Victor had advanced in 
writing several errors, here refuted, he con- 
tinued nevertheless a Catholic, because he 
only maintained them through ignorance, and 
declared in the beginning and end of his 
work, that he would correct his opinions, if 
they were found amiss. Two letters, the one 
written by Julianus of Eclanum, filled with 
Pelagian objections, having been industri- 
ously scattered about in the city of Rome 
and other places, Pope Boniface, who had 
succeeded Zosimus in 419, sent them to St. 
Augustine, who answered them in 420, by his 
"Four Books to Boniface" against the Pela- 
gians. As to their complaint, renewed by 
some in our time, that the bishops had only 
subscribed to their condemnation, dispersed 
in their own sees, without assembling in 
councils, he shows that few heresies have 
been condemned by general councils, but 



312 Life of St. Augustine. 

only by the agreement of the pastors, who 
detected them, in all parts where they were 
known. 

Julianus of Eclanum had acquired a repu- 
tation for virtue by distributing his fortune 
among the poor in a famine, but afterwards 
is charged with crimes of impurity. Vanity 
and self-conceit seem to have been the occa- 
sion of his ruin. In four books he disputed 
virulently against original sin, and on concu- 
piscence, grace, and the virtues of heathens. 
St. Augustine answered him in six books 
written about the year 423. After producing 
the testimony of the ancient fathers for origi- 
nal sin, he has many beautiful reflections con- 
cerning their authority. Julian having pub- 
lished eight books against him filled with 
bitter invectives, the saint was prevailed upon 
by importunities to make him a reply. He 
produces Julian's own terms, and answers 
them plainly and in few words. 

A numerous monastery at Adrumetum 
was at that time governed by an abbot called 
Valentine. Florus, a monk of this house, 
having met at Uzalis with St. Augustine's 



Life of St. Augustine. 313 

letter to Sixtus (then priest, afterwards pope) 
against the Pelagians, sent a copy of it home, 
by his companion Felix. Five or six ignor- 
ant monks raised a clamor against the letter, 
and against Florus and Felix, as if they 
denied free-will in man. The abbot was 
appealed to, who easily discerned in the 
letter the style and doctrine of St. Augus- 
tine. Evodius, bishop of Uzalis, wrote to 
the monks to exhort them to peace and 
brotherly love ; but the animosity continued 
in spite of all the abbot's endeavors to stifle 
it, he therefore permitted them to send Cres- 
conius and another Felix, two young monks, 
to lay the matter before St. Augustine. 
They accused Florus to him as a Predesti- 
narian; the saint instructed them in the doc- 
trine of the church, and dismissed them with 
a letter on that subject to Valentine and his 
monks. For the instruction of these monks 
he wrote his book "On Grace and Free-will" 
in which he shows that neither of these two 
points must be so maintained as to trespass 
upon the other. He desired to see Florus, 
whom the abbot accordingly sent. St. Au- 

27 



314 Life of St. Augustine. 

gustine was overjoyed to find, upon exami- 
nation, his faith to have been perfectly ortho- 
dox, and free from the error of Predestina- 
tionism, which was only a false consequence, 
which his ignorant adversaries inferred from 
the doctrine of grace. Fearing that they, 
out of ignorance, leaned towards Pelagianism, 
he inscribed to Valentine and his monks his 
book "On Correction and Grace" which he 
composed for their use ; showing that correc- 
tions and admonitions to virtue are neces- 
sary, because we have free-will: neverthe- 
less, we must not deny the necessity of divine 
grace to good actions: the rocks on both 
sides, on which many have split, are equally 
to be avoided. 

Among the heathen philosophers of old 
some were fatalists, imagining that the divine 
foreknowledge of all future events could not 
be established but upon the ruins of free-will 
in men: others, to maintain free-will, sacri- 
legiously denied a divine prescience of all 
human actions. Pelagian heretics are blind 
amidst the light of faith, and see not the 
absolute necessity of divine grace: Predesti- 



Life of St. Augustine. 315 

narians, on the other side, ascribe to divine 
grace and predestination a necessitating influ- 
ence, which is incompatible with the active 
indifference and free election, in which the 
essence of liberty consists. This election in 
Christian virtue is the effect of grace, but of 
a grace which gives the exercise or actual 
exertion of the free-will; being adapted to 
the exigency of the free creature. For God 
by his omnipotent act moves all things 
according to their exigency: he is absolute 
master of the human will, and by grace the 
cause of all its good desires, but inspires 
them without prejudice to its liberty. St. 
Augustine teaches that grace is entirely 
consistent with the exercise of our free-will, 
which he everywhere proves, because with- 
out it, precepts and exhortations would be 
useless, and chastisement for transgressions 
unjust. 

Bolingbroke took up, at second-hand, the 
slander of the Pelagians and Semipelagians 
against the doctrine of St. Augustine, when 
he charges it with Predestinationism and with 
ascribing to grace a necessitating force, in- 



316 Life of St. Augustine. 

compatible with the genuine idea of free-will. 
Such, indeed, were the systems of Luther 
and Calvin, though Melancthon exchanged 
Predestinationism for Pelagianism, amongst 
the immediate followers o{ the former, and 
Arminius did the same among part of the 
Dutch Calvinists. Notwithstanding the con- 
demnation of Arminius in the Calvinistical 
council of Dort, Pelagianism is now the most 
prevailing doctrine even among Calvinists, as 
Le Clerc, Burnet, and others testify. Those 
Jansenists, who teach that divine grace exerts 
its power upon the will with an absolute and 
simple necessity, are to be ranked among 
Predestinarian heretics, though the system 
of two delectations (however false it may 
appear) fall not under this censure, if it be 
maintained without this or any other erro- 
neous condition, or circumstance implied in 
it; whether it be restrained to the order of 
Grace, or to be extended to all natural 
actions, to which Massoulie and Hume have 
endeavored to apply it. 

December 415, a council of fourteen bish- 
ops, among whom was John of Jerusalem, 



Life of St. Augustine. 3 1 7 

was held at Diospolis or Lydda, in which 
Pelagius was obliged to appear, and give an 
account of his faith, two Gaulish bishops, who 
had been driven from their sees, Heros of 
Aries, and Lazarus of Aix, being his accusers. 
Pelagius covered the propositions with which 
he was charged with a gloss, which made 
them seem excusable, and was discharged 
because he appeared to be a Catholic ; but 
his error was condemned by the council, and 
he himself was obliged to abjure it. It is 
true indeed, that he only did it in words ; for 
he never changed his opinion, and deceived 
the bishops. After this council he became 
very vain, and boasted of the advantage he 
had gained in it; but durst not show the 
proceedings, because people would have 
seen that he had been forced to disown his 
errors. He was content to spread abroad 
a letter, which he wrote to his acquaintance, 
in which he said that fourteen bishops had 
approved his opinion, namely, that a man 
may live without sin, and may easily keep 
the divine commandments, if he will. But he 
did not say, that he had added in the council 

27* 



3 1 8 Life of St. Augustine* 

these words, with the grace of God : and he 
added in his letter the word easily, which he 
dared not pronounce in the council, as St. 
Augustine takes notice. The bishops of 
Africa were too well acquainted with his arti- 
fices to be easily imposed upon, and assem- 
bling two councils, one at Carthage, and the 
other at Milevis, in 416, they wrote against 
him to Pope Innocent, who commending their 
pastoral vigilance, declared Pelagius and 
Celestius deprived of the communion of the 
Church : for he saw, the answers of the 
former in the council of Diospolis were no 
way satisfactory, as appears from his and 
St. Augustine's letters upon this affair. Pela- 
gius wrote to the Pope to justify himself 
and Celestius, who had got himself ordained 
priest at Ephesus, went to Rome in person, 
where Zosimus had succeeded Innocent in 
the papal chair in March 417. Celestius pre- 
sented to him a confession of faith, in which 
he was very explicit on the first articles of 
the Creed, and professed, that if in any 
letter he had advanced any thing in which 
he had been mistaken, he submitted it to 



Life of St. Augustine. 319 

his judgment, and begged to be set right. 
Pope Zosimus had so much regard to his 
pretended submission, that he wrote in his 
favor to the African bishops ; though he 
would not take off the excommunication, 
which they had pronounced against Celes- 
tius, but deferred passing sentence for two 
months. In the meantime St. Aurelius as- 
sembled a council at Carthage of two hun- 
dred and fourteen bishops, which renewed 
the sentence of excommunication against 
Celestius, and declared that they constantly 
adhered to the decree of Pope Innocent. 

Pope Zosimus having received their letters 
of information, condemned the Pelagians, and 
cited Celestius to appear again : but the 
heretic fled secretly out of Rome, and tra- 
velled into the East. Upon which Zosimus 
passed a solemn sentence of excommunica- 
tion upon Pelagius and Celestius, and sent 
it into Africa, and to all the chief Churches 
of the East. The emperors Honorius and 
Theodosius made an edict, which they sent 
to the three prefects of the praetorium, to be 
published through the whole empire, by 



320 Life of St. Augustine. 

which they banished Pelagius and Celestius, 
and condemned to perpetual banishment and 
confiscation of estates all persons who should 
maintain their doctrine. Pelagius and Celes- 
tius, after this, lurked privately in the East. 
In Italy eighteen bishops refused to subscribe 
to the letter and sentence of Zosimus, and 
were deprived of their sees. The most 
learned and warmest stickler among these 
was Julianus, bishop of Eclanum in Cam- 
pania. He afterwards turned schoolmaster 
in Sicily : his tomb was discovered there in 
the ninth century in a small village. His 
writings show him to have been one of the 
vainest boasters of the human race, full of 
Pelagian pride, and a contempt of all other 
men, but of quick parts, and abundance of 
wit. It is sufficiently understood from what 
has been said, that the chief errors of the 
Pelagian heresy regard original sin and divine 
grace ; the former they denied, and also the 
necessity of the latter ; they affirmed that a 
man could live exempt from all sin, without 
grace, and they extolled the virtues of the 
Pagans. St. Augustine maintained, on the 



Life of St. Augustine, 321 

contrary, the truths of the Catholic faith with 
invincible force ; and he proved from clear 
passages in Holy Scripture that all men are 
sinners, and bound to pray for the pardon 
of sins ; for without an extraordinary grace, 
such as was given to the Virgin Mary, saints 
offend by small transgressions of a faulty 
inadvertence, against which they watch, and 
for which they live in constant compunction. 
He also proves, that the virtues of heathens 
are often counterfeit, namely, when they are 
founded in, or infected with motives of vain- 
glory or other passions : they are true moral 
virtues, and may deserve some temporal 
recompense, if they spring purely from prin- 
ciples of moral honesty ; but no virtue can 
be meritorious of eternal life, which is not 
animated by the principle of supernatural life, 
(that is, divine charity,) and not produced 
by a supernatural grace. He teaches, that 
the divine grace, obtained for us by Christ's 
redemption, works in us the consent of our 
will to all virtue, though not without our free 
concurrence ; so that all the good that can 
be in us is to be attributed to the Creator, and 



322 Life of St. Augustine. 

no one can boast of his good works against 
another. But God cannot be the author of 
evil, which rises entirely from the malice and 
defect of rectitude in the free-will of the 
creature, to whom nothing remains without 
the divine concurrence, but the wretched 
power of depraving and corrupting itself, or 
at most, of doing that from self-love, which 
ought to be done for God alone. It cannot, 
without grace, do any action of which God 
is the supernatural end, nor of which, by con- 
sequence, he will be the recompense. But 
the necessary grace is never wanting but 
through our fault. 

Through the corruption of human nature 
by sin, pride being become the darling pas- 
sion of our heart, men are born with a pro- 
pensity to Pelagianism, or principles, which 
flatter an opinion of our own strength, merit 
and self-sufficiency. It is not therefore to be 
wondered, that this heresy found many advo- 
cates ; next to that of Arianism the Church 
never received a more dangerous assault. 
The wound, which this monster caused, 
would certainly have been much deeper, had 



Life of St. Augustine. 323 

not God raised up this eminent doctor of 
his grace to be a bulwark for the defence of 
the truth. He was a trumpet to excite the 
zeal of the other pastors, and, as it were, the 
soul of all their deliberations, councils and 
endeavors to extinguish the rising flame. 
To him is the Church indebted, as to the 
chief instrument of God, in overthrowing 
this heresy. From its ashes sprung Semi- 
pelagianism, the authors of which were 
certain priests, bishops, and monks, in Gaul, 
at Lerins, and in other parts about Marseilles. 
St. Prosper and Hilarius, two zealous and 
learned laymen, informed St. Augustine by 
letters in 429, that these persons expressed 
the utmost admiration for all his other 
actions and words, but took offence at his 
doctrine of grace, as if it destroyed free-will 
in man ; they taught that the beginning of 
faith, and the first desire of virtue are from 
the creature, and move God to bestow that 
grace, which is necessary for men to execute 
and accomplish good works. They said, 
that as to the children who die without bap- 
tism, and those infidels to whom the faith is 



324 Life of St. Augustine, 

never preached, the reason of their misfor- 
tune is, that God foresees they would not 
make a good use of longer life or of the 
gospel; and that he, on that account, de- 
prives them of those graces. St. Augustine, 
in answer to these letters, wrote two books 
against this error, one entitled, "On the Pre- 
destination of the Saints" the other, "On 
the Gift of Perseverance" showing that the 
authors of this doctrine did not recede from 
the great principle of Pelagius, and that to 
ascribe to the creature the beginning of 
virtue, is to give the whole to it, not to God. 
The saint treats the Semipelagians as bre- 
thren, because they erred without obstinacy, 
and their error had not been yet condemned 
by any express definition of the Church. 
The principal persons who espoused it, seem 
to have been Cassian at Marseilles, and 
certain monks of Lerins. Faustus, abbot of 
Lerins, carried this error to the greatest 
length. 

The two works which do most honor to 
St. Augustine's name, are those of his Con- 
fessions and Retractations; in the former of 



Life of St. Augustine. 325 

which, with the most sincere humility and 
compunction, he lays open the errors of his 
conduct, and in the latter, those of his judg- 
ment.. This work of his Retractations he 
began in the year 426, the seventy-second 
of his age, reviewing his writings, which 
were very numerous, and correcting the 
mistakes he had made in an humble sense 
of them, and with a surprising candor and 
severity, never seeking the least gloss or 
excuse to extenuate them. 



23 




THE MONASTIC FOUXDATIOXS AND RELIGIOUS 
RULES OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

I. 

HE devout and zealous members of die 
Church, who aspire to perfect evangelical 
perfection by means of vows, and the 
observance of a certain rule in retirement 
and in community life, are called, in ecclesi- 
astical language, Religious, and Monks. In 
the earliest days of the Christian era such 
persons, imitating St. John the Baptist and 
the ancient prophets, retired to solitude for 
the purpose of employing their lifetime in 
prayer, humble mortification, pious labor, and 
all the exercises agreeing with the command- 
ments and counsels of the gospel. At the 
commencement of the apostolic mission of 
" teaching all things Christ commanded to 
be observed," the faithful considered the 
326 



Life of St. Augustine. 327 

silent and solitary life of the " Holy Family" 
a pattern for monastic institutions. Jesus 
Christ seemed to give occasion for the ob- 
servance of the "Religious Rule," by His 
retirement and fasting in the desert, and by 
his habitual seclusion in prayer and contem- 
plation ; also by his laudatory notice of the 
solitary life of St. John. (Matth. xi.) The 
eulogy of the prophets bestowed by St. Paul 
(Heb. xii.) favored the views of those per- 
sons inclined to asceticism. 

When heathen persecution raged in the 
first three centuries, many Christians of Egypt 
and the province of Pontus fled to the deserts 
from capture and torments. A taste for soli- 
tude was thus acquired, and became attrac- 
tive when it was desirable to escape from the 
contagion of immorality, and the distractions 
of corrupted society. St. Paul, the first Her 
mit, retired to the desert oi Thebes in the 
year 259, where he lived to the age of one 
hundred and fourteen years, his abode being 
a caverned rock, his food and raiment the 
fruits and leaves oi the forest trees. His 
Egyptian countryman, St. Anthony, embraced 



328 Life of St. Augustine. 

the same mode of life, and had many fol- 
lowers, who inhabited separated distant cells. 
In the next century all those recluses were 
congregated in monasteries by St. Pacomius, 
and observed a rule he prescribed, in commu- 
nities of thirty and forty members. In the 
year 306, St. Hilarion, disciple of St. Anthony, 
founded in Palestine, monasteries like those 
established in Egypt. The monastic life was 
rapidly introduced in Syria, Armenia, Pontus 
and Cappadocia. St. Basil became acquainted 
with this system in Egypt. He composed a 
rule for the monks, which was esteemed so 
wise and perfect that it was adopted gener- 
ally throughout the East, where it is still pre- 
served. The monks were habitually occu- 
pied in prayer, psalmody, sacred reading, 
penitential exercises, and manual labor. In 
Mesopotamia and Persia the monks were 
missionaries, and many were bishops. In 
the -year 340, St. Athanasius published in 
Italy the life of St. Anthony, and thus 
inspired the Christians of the West with 
the desire to imitate that holy servant of 
the Lord. The Regular — Religious life was 



Life of St. Augustine. $ 2 9 

judged and decided upon, by wise and vir- 
tuous persons of every degree of intelligence 
and social rank, as being conformable to the 
rule of our Divine Saviour: "If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himseh, and take 
up his cross, and follow me." (Matth. xvi.) 
They considered that St. Paul exhorted 
on this subject when he said, "They that 
are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with 
the vices and concupiscences. (Gal. v.) "I 
chastise my body, and bring it into sub- 
jection; lest perhaps, when I have preached 
to others, I myself should become a cast- 
away (i Cor. ix.) 

When St. Augustine experienced the ear- 
liest impulses of grace, and was living in the 
world before his conversion, he was worried 
by the dreary waste of the days deprived of 
heavenly light, and contemplated a solitude 
where, in company with friends of the same 
age, and of the same elevated taste, life might 
be spent at a distance from the sad disturb- 
ances of the world. The project was aban- 
doned through want of the proper means of 
construction ; but the knowledge of the mon- 



28* 



330 Life of St. Augustine. 

astic life which he acquired after his baptism, 
from the institutions then flourishing in Italy, 
determined him to execute his design. In 
the year 3S8 he established a monastery near 
to his native city Tagestum, and in the Com- 
munity formed of his relatives and friends, 
entered upon the Religious Life according 
to the rules which he composed. 

II. 

SUMMAEY OF THE E-ULES OF TEE HOLY FATHER St. AUGUSTINE. 

First, my dear brethren, love God above all 
things ; and secondly, your neighbor as your- 
selves ; for those two commandments have 
been given to us principally. 

Then follow those things which we have 
ordered to be observed in your monastery. 
Remember, first, that the purpose for which 
you are assembled, is to live in union and 
concord, that you may have but one heart 
and one soul in God. 

Be careful not to have anything in particu- 
lar, but all in common, and that food and 
clothing be distributed to every one of you 
by your superior; not equally, for all have 



Life of St Augustine. 331 

not equal need, but to each, according to his 
necessity. It is thus we read in the Acts of 
the Apostles, "that all things were in com 
mon." Let those who bring fortunes to the 
monastery put them in common, but those 
who had none in the world, should not come 
to seek in the monastery what they would not 
have had elsewhere ; they must, however, be 
assisted in their infirmity, and their wants 
supplied, although in the world their poverty 
might have been so great that they could 
not procure the necessaries of life. Let 
them not esteem themselves happy for hav- 
ing found in the monastery the conveniences 
of diet and clothing which they could not 
have had elsewhere ; nor become vain at 
being associated with, and made companions 
of those whom they would not have pre- 
sumed to approach in their former state ; but 
let them raise their hearts to heaven, and 
not amuse themselves in seeking terrestrial 
comforts ; lest it should happen that the 
monastery be profitable to the rich and not 
to the poor; if the rich be made humble, 
and the poor become proud. 



332 Life of St. Augustine. 

Care must also be taken that those who 
held some rank in the world should not des- 
pise their brethren, who having been poor, 
were received into this holy society. Let 
them rejoice more in the company of their 
poor brothers, than at the dignity of their 
rich friends. Neither should they exalt nor 
esteem themselves the more for having con- 
tributed to the support ot the community, 
than if they had continued to enjoy their 
property in the world, for all sorts of sins 
appear in the accomplishment of bad works, 
but pride lies in wait for good works, to 
destroy them. To what purpose is it to give 
one's goods to the poor, and to become 
poor one's self, if the miserable soul become 
prouder in despising them, than she had been 
in possessing them ? Live then together in 
perfect union and concord, and honor God, 
revering in each other His sacred temples. 

Apply to prayer and meditation at the 
hours and time appointed. Let nothing be 
done in the oratory, or choir, but what it 
is destined for. If, besides the hours pres- 
cribed, some having leisure, desire to pray 



Life of St. Augustine. 333 

there, they should not be prevented or dis- 
turbed by others. When you are occupied 
in church service, that is, in reciting or singing 
the psalms or hymns, let your heart be atten- 
tive to what your voice pronounces, and be 
careful not to sing but what is prescribed, 
and what is not prescribed, do not sing. 

Subdue your flesh by fasting and absti- 
nence as far as your health will permit, 
but if some cannot do this strictly, they 
should at all events not take anything 
out of the usual hours of meals, unless 
they be really sick. When you come to 
table, be careful to listen quietly and atten- 
tively to the lecture, which is read accord- 
ing to custom, to the end, that not only 
the mouth may receive its nourishment, but 
that the ear be also filled with the Word 
of God. If some be treated differently from 
others, on account of the infirmities they 
have contracted by their former diet, or 
manner of living; this should not appear 
unjust or unreasonable to those whose con- 
stitutions are more robust; nor should they 
esteem the infirm happier, for getting better 



334 Life of St. Augustine. 

nourishment than they do; they should rather 
feel consolation at enjoying that good health 
which the others do not. If more clothing, 
food, bed-clothes, &c, be given to those 
who come to the monastery, after having 
been delicately reared in the world, than 
to others who are stronger, and of course 
happier ; those to whom these things are 
denied should consider how much the for- 
mer have relinquished of the life they led 
in the world, though they cannot attain to 
the frugality and abstinence of the latter, 
who have more vigor; these must not, there- 
fore, be displeased if more be given to such 
delicate persons, as this is not done to show 
them more respect, but to relieve their 
infirmity ; otherwise a deplorable evil would 
ensue, that in the monastery, where the rich 
are taught to labor as far as they are able, 
the poor, on the other hand, become delicate. 
Though it may be expedient to give but 
little food to the sick, for fear of hurting 
or overcharging their stomachs, yet when 
recovering, they must be well treated, so as 
speedily to regain their former strength, 



Life of St. Atcgustine. 335 

even though they had arisen from the lowest 
condition of the poor, for they have acquired 
by their sickness the same infirmity which 
the rich had from the beginning, because of 
their delicate rearing. When restored to 
health, they must return to their better and 
happier custom, which is more becoming the 
servants of God; nor must they, when in 
health, seek those indulgences which were 
necessary for them when sick. Those who 
have strength to support frugality should 
deem themselves happy, for it is more desira- 
ble to want little than to have much. 

Let no singularity appear in your apparel, 
and seek not to please by your dress, but 
by your conduct. Seek rather to be in the 
company of your brethren, than alone, and 
let nothing appear either in your walk, car- 
riage, gestures, or movements, that could 
offend the eye of others, but all that gravity 
and modesty becoming the sanctity of your 
holy profession ; and keep so strict a watch 
over your eyes, as never to fix them on 
any person. 

If you remark in any of your brethren 



2, $6 Life of St. Augustine. 

a considerable defect, acquaint him thereof 
without delay, that he may correct himself, 
and prevent the evil from increasing ; but 
if, after having been warned, you see he 
relapses, you should denounce him as a 
sick person who requires to be cured, after 
having made one or two observe it, that in 
case of necessity he may be convicted by 
the testimony of two or three, and corrected 
as may be found expedient. Do not, how- 
ever, look upon yourself as disaffected to- 
wards him, for if, by your silence you allow 
to perish your brethren whom you might 
have corrected by a timely discovery, you 
partake in their guilt. If your brother had 
a bodily wound which he wished to hide, 
fearing an incision, would it not be cruelty 
in you to conceal it, and charity to discover 
it? How much more then ought you to 
manifest his spiritual wound, lest a more 
dangerous corruption be engendered in his 
soul ? But previous to his being brought 
before those by whom he is to be convicted, 
in case he denies the fact, he must be first 
brought to the Superior, and privately repre- 



Life of St. Augustine. 2>37 

hended, in order that few may be acquainted 
with his fault; but if he persist in denying 
it, the others must be called, that he may 
not only be tried before one witness, but 
convicted before all, by the testimony of two 
or three. Being convicted, he must undergo 
the penance imposed, according to the deci- 
sion and discretion of the Superior. If he 
refuses to receive it, he must be separated 
from the rest, (which is charity, not cruelty,) 
for fear of destroying them by his pestilen- 
tial contagion: and this same method must 
be carefully observed in the research, con- 
viction, and correction of all faults, but always 
with a great love of the persons, and hatred 
of their vices. 

Let your clothing be kept in the same 
place, under the care of one or two, or as 
many as may be necessary to keep them in 
good order and preservation. As your 
nourishment is supplied from the same funds, 
so should your clothing likewise. Be not 
solicitous about the clothing given you, 
whether it be suited to the season or not; 
or about what you have left off, contenting 

39 



338 Life of St. Augustine. 

yourselves that you want nothing necessary. 
Should murmuring or contention arise on 
this head, so that any one complains of 
getting worse clothes than he had before, and 
that he does not deserve to be more indif- 
ferently clad than others, hereby you may 
judge how deficient you are in sanctity and 
the interior ornaments of the soul, since 
such anxiety arises from those of the body. 
When you get your habits, those you lay 
aside must be kept in a common wardrobe, 
and all must be under the charge of the same 
person, in order that no one should work in 
particular for himself, whether for the bed, 
habit or other clothing, but all should be 
done for the community with more care and 
pleasure than if for himself; for it is written 
that charity seeketh not its ozcm, and this is 
manifested by preferring common to particu- 
lar works, and not particular works to com- 
mon. In proportion as you find you pay 
more attention to what is common than to 
what is particular, you will perceive the pro- 
gress you have made, and it will appear that 
chanty, which is permanent, holds the first 



Life of St. Augustine. 339 

place in your hearts, and shines forth even in 
the use of casual necessaries. 

If any sick person require assistance, it 
must not be deferred, but given without mur- 
mur, according to the advice of the physi- 
cians. Though he should not even desire it, 
the Superior must insist upon his doing what 
is expedient for his health ; if, on the contrary, 
he should wish for what is hurtful, he must 
not be gratified, for we often esteem as salu- 
tary what is really prejudicial. If the servant 
of God has any hidden corporal pain, he 
must be credited, nor should it be doubted 
that he suffers the indisposition he complains 
of; however, in order to ascertain whether 
what he desires be expedient for the relief 
of his complaint, the physician must be con- 
sulted. One of the brethren must be ap- 
pointed for the care of the sick, the infirm, or 
those who are in a state of convalescence, in 
order to obtain from the depository what 
may be requisite for them. Those who are 
charged with the depository should cheer- 
fully serve their brothers, and not delay 
giving what is necessary. 



34-0 Life of St. Augustine. 

Carefully avoid disputes and contentions; 
but should they arise, terminate them speed- 
ily, lest anger become hatred, and a mote be 
thus increased to a beam. " He who hates his 
brother is a murderer." Whoever offends 
his brother by harsh or injurious words, 
should repair the evil by immediate satisfac- 
tion, and he who has been offended should 
forgive without contestation. If both be in 
fault, and have given mutual offence, they 
should be reconciled and have recourse to 
prayer ; which ought to be the more holy, 
as it is more frequent among you. He who 
though often tempted to anger and quickness 
of temper, readily apologizes, is more praise- 
worth)- than that other who is not so easily 
moved, but reluctantly acknowledges his fault. 
Those who refuse to forgive, or to apologize, 
or who do so against their will, are uselessly 
to themselves in the monastery, though they 
be not expelled. Abstain, therefore, from all 
rude and uncivil words; but should they 
escape your lips, be not backward in apply- 
ing a proper remedy from the same source 
whence the wound proceeded. 



Life of St. Augustine. 341 

When it is necessary to make use of harsh 
expressions, either for the instruction or 
reprehension of those confided to your care, 
and that on these occasions, you may have 
exceeded the just bounds of moderation, you 
are not, under pretence of humility, to ask 
pardon of them for your fault, for this may 
diminish your authority, and render you less 
useful to them. Acknowledge it, however, 
to the common Lord and Master of all, who 
knows with what tenderness you love those 
whom perhaps you have reprehended with 
unnecessary warmth. Love should be spi- 
ritual, and not sensible, among you. 

Obey your Superior, showing the greatest 
respect, lest otherwise God be offended. In 
order that these injunctions may be punc- 
tually observed, and that nothing through 
negligence, pass without correction or amend- 
ment, the Superior will be particularly watch- 
ful. As to himself, let him not esteem him- 
self happy to have the power of governing 
and commanding, but rather be enabled to 
serve his brethren with charity. Let him 

have precedence and honor before the world, 
39* 



342 Life of St. Augustine. 

but before God let him be humbly assidu- 
ous amongst you, and be to all an example 
of good works. He should correct the un- 
ruly, console the pusillanimous, support and 
cherish the infirm, be patient towards all, 
ready to correct where necessary, but im- 
posing correction with fear ; let him seek 
rather to be loved than dreaded, though 
both are useful, remembering always, that 
he has to render an account of you to God; 
for which reason, in obeying him, compas- 
sionate not only yourselves, but others whose 
danger is great in proportion to their charge. 
May God's grace enable you to observe 
these ordinances with charity, loving the 
interior beauty of virtue, and by your ex- 
ample to become a good odor in Jesus 
Christ, not as servants under the yoke of 
the law, but as persons of free condition 
under the ordinance of grace. But in order 
that you may see yourselves in this rule, 
as in a mirror, let it be read once a week, 
lest through forgetfulness you neglect any 
thing ; and if you find you have done what 
is prescribed, thank God, from whom all good 



Life of St. Augustine. 343 

proceeds, but if you perceive you have failed 
in any point thereof, repent of the same, 
and be more careful in future, beseeching- 
God to pardon your fault, and to protect 
you from temptation. 

It is certain that St. Augustine appointed 
manual labor in his monastery, since about 
the year 400 he wrote a book "On the 
Labor of Monks" to prove this exercise to 
be part of the penitential obligations of the 
monastic state. He prescribed useful studies 
and spiritual functions, instead of manual 
labor, for those qualified or called to the 
ministry of the altar. 

When St. Augustine was ordained priest, 
and removed to Hippo, many of his religious 
brethren followed him, and with the assist- 
ance of his bishop, St. Valerius, he founded 
there a new monastery, the monks of which 
St. Paulinus saluted when he wrote to the 
holy Doctor in 394. Thence came forth nine 
eminent bishops, who by their learning, and 
the sanctity of their manners, were so many 
bright ornaments of the Church of Africa, 
namely, St. Alypius of Tagestum, St. Evo- 



344 Life of St. Augustine. 

dius of Uzalis, St. Possidius of Calama, Pro- 
futurus and Fortunatus of Cirtha, Severus 
of Milevis, Urbanis of Sicca, Boniface and 
Peregrinus. When die illustrious Father 
was consecrated bishop, being obliged to live 
with his clergy in the city, he formed them 
into a regular community under the same 
rule observed at Tagestum. This is the 
original of the Regular Canons of St. Augus- 
tine, an organization distinct from the first 
Order of Hermits. 

St. Augustine instituted a nunnery of his 
Order, after he was promoted to the episco- 
pal dignity; and his sister, who renounced 
the world in her widowhood, was chosen the 
first Superioress. 

The Religious Institute of the "Hermits 
of the Order of St. Augustine,'* soon spread 
over Africa, but was extinguished by the inva- 
sion of the Vandals. It was translated with 
the exiled bishops and clergy in company 
with the relics of the holy founder. Being 
revived in Europe principally through the 
agency of St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspa, 
one of its most illustrious members, it spread 



Life of St. Augustine. 345 

rapidly into different nations. It flourished 
in several separate communities which fixed 
their Hermitages in solitudes where, in course 
of time, the wilderness and waste places were 
really made to smile under the operation of 
the sons of the holy and zealous Patriarch of 
Hippo. The several congregations united 
in one organized body under the canonical 
authorization of Pope Alexander IV. in the 
year 1254, and added to the Rule such 
Constitutions as were fitted for the recon- 
structed Order, and, without, making any sub- 
stantial alteration, the Rules were formed to 
meet the mission of the brethren. 



III. 

The Divine Word made Flesh is to the 
Jews a scandal and to the Gentiles a folly : 
in like manner the perfection of Christian life 
manifested in the monastic institute is a sub- 
ject for denunciation or scorn amongst infi- 
dels and sophists. It is held in admiration by 
all saintly and intelligent persons who never 
fail to discern its edifying and civilizing influ- 



346 Life of St. Augustine. 

ence in every clime and generation where 
the Religious Brethren are seen rendering 
the name of the Lord glorious. From the 
first days of Christianity those admirable 
examples of charity continually appeared to 
astonish the heathen world. All the mem- 
bers of the great Christian family strove with 
each other in zeal, devotedness and charity ; 
they formed "one body and one soul;" they 
possessed nothing of their own, and their 
goods, placed in common, served to relieve 
the poor and the unfortunate; they looked 
upon themselves as the depositaries of the 
favors of Providence, commissioned to dis- 
tribute them to those who were deprived of 
them; so that fortune was not a property to 
them, but a burden, a title to which all those 
whom the finger of God pointed out had a 
riofht. The first Christians did not confine 
their assistance to their brethren in the faith, 
but all the unfortunate, whatever was their 
religion and social condition, saw the hands 
of mercy and the treasures of the most inge- 
nious charity opened to them. During three 
centuries this admirable perfection of Chris- 



Life of St. Augustine. 347 

tian fraternity subsisted in all its splendor. 
But when the faith became general and the 
Caesars embraced the religion of the Saviour, 
this rapture of fervor was extinguished with 
the fire of persecution; not that Christians 
were less attached to the dogmas of their 
belief, but the practice of the evangelical 
counsels was expediently modified a little, to 
suit the course of events, and the exigencies 
of ordinary life. 

Yet the genius of Christianity, that had 
wrought so many wonders, and had converted 
the world, wished to perpetuate to our days 
all those great prodigies of disinterestedness, 
self-denial and charity, which had victoriously 
proved its celestial origin. From the bosom 
of the Church, " the Spouse of Jesus Christ," 
men, animated with the Spirit of God, came 
out at " sundry times and in divers manners," 
and preserved in all its purity the perfection 
of the first centuries. To the various cor- 
porations formed after the apostolic model 
the poor were thenceforth seen to carry their 
misery. No wounded were left to the stray 
help of a Samaritan. No Lazarus was any 



348 Life of St. Augustine. 

longer dependent on the surgical skill of the 
dogs on the highways. To the sacred re- 
treats of the Religious Fraternity the unfor- 
tunate came to relate their troubles and to 
seek for consolation. The rich trusted these 
men dedicated to the relief of so many wants, 
and pouring abundant alms into their hands, 
commissioned them to pursue with their soli- 
citude, poverty or misfortune into their most 
secret haunts. 

As numberless evils continually assault 
humanity, innumerable corporations, differing 
in their object, although one in the spirit that 
animated them, arose to devote themselves 
to the relief of every human misery, and to 
aid in every operation for social welfare. 
Well have they accomplished their noble 
task! 

This necessarily is very obscure, and very 
perplexing to certain sapient idiots, who 
having eyes see not, having ears hear not, 
and " do not understand what they say nor 
whereof they affirm." For example, utilita- 
rian philosophy cannot solve the problem 
of the Hermit's life, even though enjoying 



Life of St. Augustine. 349 

the patronage of the active and illustrious 
St. Augustine. History gives some useful 
and entertaining information on that score. 
The Church is catholic in the discharge of 
its parental care, hence it has placed watch- 
ful sentinels in every place where mankind 
could incur danger ; it has scattered them 
all over the surface of the globe, amongst 
rocks and shoals, on the tops of mountains, 
in the depths of forests. There these de- 
voted men waited during their whole life 
for the bewildered traveller, who stood in 
need of their succor. Vestiges of these 
useful establishments are to be found every- 
where, and tell the story that it was often 
agreeable to have a hermit near at hand. 
If the frail boats of fishermen, surprised 
by a storm, or by night, endeavored in vain 
to reach their port, a light suddenly piercing 
through the darkness, shone upon one of 
the small desert islands which are formed 
along the coasts. It was the hermit of the 
rock who had lighted the kind beacon, in 
order to direct the uncertain course of the 
unhappy sailors. If the tempest was too 

30 



350 Life of St. Augustine. 

violent, they tied their boat to the shore, 
and clambering up the rock, came to claim 
from the hermit the succor of hospitality. 
If there was any dangerous passage infested 
by thieves, or exposed to the sudden over- 
flowings of a torrent, hermits came to fix 
their dwelling amongst these dangers; day 
and night with their ears on the alert, they 
heard the least shout of alarm, or the remote 
noise of a torrent as it rolled along. They 
had established ingenious marks, to inform 
the travellers not to advance but with pre- 
caution. If some were victims to their im- 
prudence, the hermits ran, with the courage 
and intrepidity of warriors, to rescue them 
from the banditti, or they dashed forward 
to draw from the abyss the unhappy travel- 
lers who had been carried away by the 
current. Thus, upon many of the most 
dangerous parts of the Durance, a capri- 
cious river, which sometimes rolls a small 
stream of pale and discolored water through 
barren sands, and at other times suddenly 
covers an immense extent of land, pious 
establishments were built, where the travel- 



Life of St. Augustine. 351 

ler was always sure of finding an asylum 
and protection. Attracted by the holiness 
and charity of the Religious, many inhabi- 
tants from the neighboring countries came 
to fix their dwellings near them, and the 
modest monastery became the origin of 
wealthy towns, which have forgotten their 
venerable founders. Now that countries 
are crossed in every direction by high roads, 
that the passage of rivers is sure, that an 
armed militia watches over the safety of 
travellers, and commerce, industry, and mili- 
tary strength have changed everywhere the 
system of communications, we do not suffi- 
ciently reflect how great and heroic were 
the services rendered by the monks of all 
orders. But if we go back to the times 
of semi-barbarism, when vast regions were 
divided into a great number of independent 
principalities, and no important improvement 
could be propagated ; if we reflect, that fre- 
quent wars and jealous rivalry divided the 
vassals of different lords, and filled all the 
country with horrors and bloodshed ; if, on 
the other side, we call to mind the isolation 



352 Life of St. Augustine. 

to which the monks condemned themselves, 
all the ennui of solitude, the dangers to 
which they were exposed in those dreary 
retreats, where their eyes met only with a 
gaping abyss under their feet, beetling rocks 
over their heads, and around them gloomy 
forests always resounding with fierce how- 
lings, we shall agree that the life of those 
Religious was admirable, their devotedness 
useful, and that, inspired by religion, some 
of them deserved to be honored with the 
name of St. Augustine. 

Sophists have asked, what is the utility 
of monasteries where Religious of orders 
variously titled, though one in origin and 
design, live in tranquillity, and in apparent 
idleness, without engaging in active life, and 
the service of their neighbor? No regard 
can be entertained for the stupid and malig- 
nant persons who utter this impertinence, 
and w T e answer those kind of questions 
merely for the sake of the enjoyment of 
admiring the operatives in the employment 
of the Lord. We cannot consider any class 
of Religious as useless even if they attend 



Life of St. Augustine, 353 

only to prayer. It is fortunate that there 
are men who pray for their brethen, who 
interpose between heaven and us ; who raise 
their hands on the mountain whilst others 
light in the plain ; who make up for the 
negligence of some, or the distracted life of 
others ; who expiate the faults or abandon- 
ings of the crowd ; who turn aside the anger 
of God, provoked by our passions ; who 
weep between the porch and the altar, and 
draw upon the state, and upon private per- 
sons, those succors and favors of which we 
are all in need. It is fortunate that there 
are asylums where men, tired of the world, 
may shelter themselves, escape those occa- 
sions which have been so often fatal ; may 
shelter themselves, escape those occasions 
which may have been hurtful to them; put a 
barrier between them and powerful seduc- 
tions, and prepare in silence for their last 
passage. But we deny that any Religious 
within or outside the cloister have been use- 
less, or have endured the fatigue of idleness, 
or the sickening tranquillity of sloth. 

All the Monks (we will use the generic 

30* 



354 ^lf e of St. Augustine, 

name) found a means of being useful to 
society, and from the obscurity of their little 
cells, their learned studies enlightened the 
world which they had quitted. They raised 
antiquity from the dust of forgetfulness ; they 
discovered precious monuments, and shed 
the brightness of erudition and criticism on 
all objects of study. The cloistered Reli- 
gious were eminently adapted to these works; 
in their monasteries they were, in fact, less 
distracted by the affairs of the world, less 
enervated to seek repose. There they had 
the help of large libraries ; they put in com- 
mon all their researches and resources, and 
the old brethren, by making the young help 
them, formed successors in the same career. 
These are they who have cured us of our 
ignorance, and who, for centuries, have 
buried themselves in the dust of schools, to 
draw us from barbarism. They were never 
afraid of knowledge, since they opened its 
sources ; they had no other view than to 
make us share the lights which they had col- 
lected with so much labor and fatigue, in the 
ruins of Greece and Rome. 






Life of St. Augustine. 355 

The ancients paid divine worship to him 
who first made use of the plough, and taught 
them to seek in the bosom of the earth for 
all the resources of life. Modern sa^es have 
scarcely preserved the remembrance of those 
useful men who restored to life the art of 
agriculture, after the invasions of the Bar- 
barians, where the first notions of it had been 
lost ; or if we are told that it is to the Monks 
that we owe this immense benefit, the import- 
ant information is received with indifference 
and contempt. Some persons know only- 
how to profit by the services of every kind 
rendered by the Monks, and overwhelm 
them, in return, with affronts and contempt. 
For, in spite of the pride and presumption 
of this retrograde age, it must be acknow- 
ledged that everything originally came to us 
from the Religious orders ; the clearing of 
lands, the opening of roads, the increase of 
villages, colleges and hospitals, the promo- 
tion of internal and external commerce, civil 
laws and politics ; such are a few of the utilir 
ties of monasticism. 

The greatest part of the grants made to 



35 6 Life of St. Augustine, 

monasteries were of waste lands, which the 
monks cultivated with their own hands ; wild 
forests, impracticable marshes, vast moors, 
were the source of the so much reprobated 
riches of the Religious. Those provinces 
which are so productive now-a-days, those 
fertile hills covered with vines and grain, 
were places overgrown with thorns and 
briars, where the first Religious dwelt in cot- 
tages made of branches, till they had finished 
their painful labor of clearing. Whole fami- 
lies came to seek an asylum under the direc- 
tion of the brethren; the monasteries were 
surrounded with widows and old soldiers, 
penniless laborers, and all sorts of infirm 
people. The Fathers gave them employ- 
ment, taught them the best way to be indus- 
trious, and generously helped them to do 
their work. All became happy and active 
cultivators, after the example of those bene- 
factors of the human family who felled trees 
with their own hands, guided the plough, 
sowed the corn, and covered the hitherto 
uncultivated soil with crops. The Monks 
have done exactly the reverse of that which 






Life of St. Augustine. 357 

their libellers assert, who defame thern as 
being a hindrance to the extension of the 
human race. Their virtue cherished and 
spread a comfortable and healthy population 
in those countries where the vice of the 
calumniators is a check upon the fecundity of 
divine creation. The greatest part of those 
towns, whose origin does not reach the time 
of the Roman dominion, have been founded 
by Hermit pioneers, by monastic husband- 
men, around whom flocked crowds of people 
desiring to be blessed, instructed and em- 
ployed. 

Besides the rural labors and all the other 
services of which we have spoken, the Reli- 
gious found a great many other ways of 
being useful. They practised mechanics, and 
extended commerce within and without Eu- 
rope. A congregation of the order of the 
brethren, shoemakers and tailors, was insti- 
tuted to afford the utility and comfort of our 
present mode of dress. " As for interior 
commerce, fairs and markets first belonged 
to the monasteries, and had been established 
by them. The Religious spun the greater 



358 Life of St. Augustine. 

part of the linen cloth of Europe ; they were 
first to make beer, and provide a refreshing 
beverage for the foggy and frosty climates 
too inhospitable for the vine. The fine wines 
of the Archipelago, Hungary, Italy, France 
and Spain, were first successfully made by 
religious communities. Several articles of 
utility and convenience, viz : parchment, wax, 
flax, marble, goldsmith's work, woollen and 
silk fabrics, and tapestry, were improved by 
the manufacture of those industrious con- 
templatives. The Monks also cultivated the 
arts ; they were the painters, sculptors, and 
architects of the Gothic age. Always in- 
genious in finishing what they had not the 
glory of inventing, they collected in their 
pious retreats the precious sparks, and it was 
from the depths of cloisters that the flames 
of knowledge burst forth which afterwards 
enlightened the world." 

The eulogy and vindication of the Reli- 
gious orders may be summed up in the fact 
of their immortal endurance. They have 
been harassed in all countries and genera- 
tions, by every persecution that the ingenuity 



Life of St. Augustine. 359 

of Satan could devise, and the malignity of 
man could execute. The words of our divine 
Saviour are certainly and specially applica- 
ble to the monastic brethren whom He ad- 
dresses when He says : " If the world hate 
you, know ye that it hath hated me before 
you. If you had been of the world, the 
world would love its own; but because you 
are not of the world, but I have chosen you 
out of the world, therefore the world hateth 
you. .... The servant is not greater than 
his master. If they have persecuted me, 

they will also persecute you They will 

put you out of the synagogues; yea, the 
hour cometh that whosoever killeth you will 
think that he doth a service to God." (John 
xv. xvi.) This prediction has been fulfilled 
to the letter in the religious communities. 
Nevertheless they have persevered in their 
mission, and advanced, through "trials and 
tribulations," to the accomplishment of their 
noble task of giving glory to God and peace 
to men. Meanwhile hosts of their enemies 
have fallen in discredit, despair and death. 
Innumerable charters, codes and constitu- 



360 Life of St. Augustine. 

tions have been projected and proclaimed by 
philanthropists and philosophers, which have 
lasted only throughout the term of their 
sudden expiration. How different the case 
of the gospel simpletons; for instance, the 
Rule of St. Augustine. For fourteen hun- 
dred years that Rule has been maturing 
its immortality, by its inspiration numerous 
eaglets from the eyry of Hippo have been 
lifted towards the sun of truth, and onward 
they will float in the air jubilant with praises 
to God, who by divine grace made 

St. Augustine the Light of Doctors. 





A PRAYER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 



EFORE thy eyes, O Lord, we bring our 
sins, and with them compare the stripes 
we have received. 

If we weigh the evil we have done, we find 
what we suffer to be much less than what we 
deserve. 

What we have committed, far outweighs 
what we endure. 

We feel the punishment of sin, and yet we 
turn not from our wilfulness of sinning. 

Our weakness faints under thy scourges ; 
but our perverseness is still the same. 

Our diseased mind is racked with pain ; 
and our neck is as stiff as ever. 

Our life is spent in sighs and grief; but in 
our actions we are not reformed. 

If thou expectest our amendment, we grow 

361 



31 



3 62 Life of St. Augustine, 

no better ; if thou takest revenge, we are not 
able to subsist. 

When we are chastised, we acknowledge 
what we have done ; but when thy visitation 
is over, we forget what we have wept for. 

If thou stretchest out thy hand, we promise 
duty ; if thou suspendest thy sword, we keep 
not our promise. 

If thou strikest, we cry for pardon ; and if 
thou pardonest, we provoke thee again to 
strike. 

Here, O Lord, are thy criminals, confess- 
ing their guilt; we know, that unless thou for- 
give, thou mayest justly destroy us. 

Grant without merit, what we ask, O 
Almighty Father: who out of nothing didst 
create us to ask thee : through Christ oui 
Lord. Amen. 




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Translated from the French of Rev. M. D'Arville, Apostolic Prothonotary, 
and published with the approbation of the Eight Rev. Bishop of Phila- 
delphia, the Most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore, and the Most Rev. Arch- 
• bishop of Neio York. 1 neat 12mo volume. 

Price— In cloth $1.90 

In gilt edges 2.00 

This is a delightful book ; brimful of sweet flowers ; a lovely garland in 
honor of Mary our Mother and powerful intercessor before the throne of her 
Bon. 

Well has the Magnificat said, "all generations »\all call me blessed;" all 
times, and in all lands, wherever the symbol, upon which her Divine Son 
lansomed a wicked and undeserving world with his excruciating sufferings and 
ieath has a votary, her name, spotless and beautiful, shall be pronounced with 
TSYPT'tfnce, and her protection implored. 

The tome before us is a collection of the honors paid to Mary by the great 
©■ad good of all lands; by those who, with the diadem of earthly grandeur 
adorning their brows, and vexed political commonwealths to guard and pacify, 
found time to honor the daughter of St. Anne, the beloved Mother of our Lord 
and Saviour. 

Buy the book. Read one or two pages. "We promise a feast, a desire to read 
the whole, a determination to do so. — Cathtlic Telegraph. 

This work is divided into seventy-two Exercises, corresponding with th« 
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(3) 



4 Published by Peter F, Cunningham, 

to Mary of the twelve months of the year, in reference to her virtues ; also ■ 
method of using certain of the Exercises by a way of devotion for the "Moatfe 
ct* Mary," a Novena in honor of the Immaculate Conception, and other matters 
feoth interesting and advantageous to the true servant of Mary, and those wh« 
would become so. 

" Baltimore, April 6, 1865. 

" We willingly unite with the Ordinary of Philadelphia and the Metropolitan 
of New York in approving 'The Year of Mary,' republished by Peter F. Cun- 
ningham, of Philadelphia. 

"M. J. SPALDING, 

"Archbishop of Baltimore." 

A work presented to the Catholics with such recommendations does not need 
any word of encouragement from us.— Pilot. 

This work meets a want long ungratified. The devotional Exercises which 
make up the book are ingeniously arranged in reference, 1st, to each year of the 
Blessed Virgin's long residence on earth ; 2d, to every Sunday and festival 
throughout the year. The Exercises are therefore seveaty-two in number, cor- 
responding to the generally received belief of the duration of her terrestrial life. 

The First Exercise is thus appropriated to the Immaculate Conception, and 
may be used both for the 8th of December and for the first day of the year. 
The seventy-second celebrates the Assumption, and may be profitably read on 
the loth of August, and on the last day of the year. 

Each Instruction is prefaced by a text from holy writ, and followed by an 
example, a historical fact, a practice and a prayer. 

The Approbations are: 

1st. By the Roman Theological Censor. 

2d. By a favorable letter from his Holiness Gregory XVI. 

3d. By the recommendatory signatures of the Archbishops of Baltimore and 
New York, and the Bishop of Philadelphia. 

This Devotional is a deeply interesting and practical manual, and Mrs. Sadlier, 
who has very skilfully reduced the originally free translation into graceful con- 
formity to the original, has rendered the Christian public a most essential ser- 
vice. We wish it the widest circulation. — N. Y. Tablet. 

"The Year of Mary" is one of the most beautiful tributes to the Mother of 
God that a Catholic family could desire to have. We are free, however, to 
confess our partiality in noticing any (book that treats of the pre-eminent glory 
of her whom God exalted above all created beings. 

But, independently of this consideration, the present volume can be recom- 
mended on its own special merits. Besides being replete with spiritual instruc- 
tion, it presents a detailed account of the life of the Blessed Virgin from the 
Conception to the Assumption, and views her under every possible aspect, both 
as regards herself and her relations with man. It lays down the rules by 
which we are to be guided in our practical devotions towards her ; displays its 
genuine characteristics, and indicates the sublime sentiments by which we 
ought to be actuated when we pay her our homage, or invoke her assistance. 

"The Year of Mary" contains seventy-two Exercises, in accordance with the 
received opinion of the Church that the Blessed Virgin lived that number of 
years on earth. In these instructions, the reader shall learn her life, her pre- 
rogatives, her glory in Heaven, and her boundless goodness to mankind. We 
would like to see this book in every Catholic family in the country. It is impos- 
sible for us to hocor the Mother of God sufficiently well. But in reading this 
book, or any like it, we must ever bear in mind that acts, not mere professions 
of piety, should be the distinctive marks of "the true servant of the Blessed 
Virgin," and that she is really honored, only in so far as we imitate her virtues 
for the sake of Him through whom alone we can hope for eternal life. 

The name of Mrs. Sadlier is familiar to the public ; her talents as an authoress 
are too well known to need any eulogy here ; she is an accomplished lady, and 
has faithful, y doDe her part. As to the publisher, Mr. Cunningham, we say, 
without flattery, that he has done a good work in presenting this excellent 
book to his fellow-Catholics, and with all our heart we wish him the fullest 
measure of success to which this noble enterprise entitles him. — The Monthly, 



M 



216 South Third Street, Philadelphia, 5 

editatioms of St. Ignatius ; or, " Tlie Spiri- 
ttsal Exercises" expounded; 

By Father Siniscalchi, of the Society of Jesus. 

Published with tne approbation of the Eight Rev. Bis\op of Philadelphia. 
1 vol. 12mo. 

Price— Neatly bound in cloth, gilt back $1.53 

The fame of the great founder of the Society of Jesus, would itself insure the 
characte r of the above book of meditations, as oue of the most meritorious kind. 
Bat the greater part of Catholics of all nations have been made familiar with 
the nature, object, and efficiency of these meditations in the Spiritual Retreats 
conducted by tLi Fathers of this Society, in every language, in every country, 
and almost every town of Christendom. We are glad to see this valuable work 
published in our country and tongue, and feel assured it will be heartily 
welcomed by the multitudes who nre familiar with it, if in no other way, at 
least from the free use which is made of it in the Jesuit Missions, forming, 
as it ('oes, the basis of all those inspiriting exercises which constitute a 
spiritual retreat. — Catholic Mirror. 

This is the first American edition of this celebrated work, which has been 
translated into nearly all the European languages. It supplies a want long 
felt in America. It is an excellent book of Meditations for the family, but it in 
particularly adapted for those attending Retreats or Missions, especially those 
given by the Jesuits, whose method this is. We cannot too strongly recommend 
this book to the Catholic public —New Ywk Tablet. 

This is a timely publication of the Meditations of St. Ignatius, and the Catholic 
community are indebted to the Philadelphia publisher for bringing the work 
within their reach. In Europe, where it is well known, it would be superfluous 
to do more than call attention to the fact of a new edition being published ; but 
inasmuch as American Catholics have not had an opportunity of becoming very 
familiar with the work, it may not be out of place to say a few words concern- 
ing it. 

The Meditations are twenty-two in number, each divided into three parts, and 
in each division the subject is viewed, as it were, from a different point of view, 
the last being always the most striking. Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven, 
the Mysteries of the Saviour's Life, and the Happiness of Divine Love — these 
are the subjects of the Saint's meditations, and every consideration germain to 
such topics calculated to excite the feelings or influence the judgment, is brought 
before the reader in simple, forcible language, or impressed on the mind by 
means of a striking anecdote or opposite illustration. The volume is thickly 
strewn with quotations from sacred and patritic writings, and the whole range 
of profane history is laid under contribution to furnish material wherewith to 
point a moral or enforce a truth. 

No Catholic family should be without this book, and no Catholic library 
•hould be depending on one copy. It is a noble edition to the ever-increasing 
Btock of Catholic devotional literature, and we hope the publisher's judicious 
creature wi'l be successful. We must not omit to mention that the publication 
has received the official sanc'f on of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia.- - 
Metropolitan Record. 



k^acerdos Samctificatiis ; or, discourses ©n 

tlie Mass and OtSice, 

With a Preparation and Thanksgiving before and after Mass for every 
day in the week Translated from the Italian of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, 

By the Rev. James J ones. 
I vol. 18mo. 

Price— Neatly bound in c ith, , 80 ;tst 



6 Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 

JL he Life of St. Teresa. 

Written by hersell 

Translated rVora the Spanisl by Eev. Canon Dalton, and publish*- # ' ** 
the approbation of the Rijht R*c. Bishop of Philadelphia. ,*L 

12mo., neatly bound in cloth. 

Price — In cloth Ji.69 

In cloth, gilt edge........... . . 2.00 



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lie Life of St. Catherine of Sienna. 

By Blessed Eaymond of Capua, her Confessor. 

Translated from the French, by the Ladies of the Saered Heart. Wirt* 
the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol. 
12mo., neatly bound in cloth. 

Price — In cloth $1.50 

In cloth, gilt edge 2.00 



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-Jife of St. Margaret of Cortona. 



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Translated from the Italian, by John Gilmary Shea, and published with 
the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol. 16hqo., 
neatly bound in cloth, gilt backs. 

Price $1.00 

he Life of St. Angela Merici of Brescia, 
Foundress of the Order of St. Ursula. 
By the Abbe Parenty. 

With a History of the Order in Ireland, Canada and the United States, 
by John Gilmary Shea. Published with the approbation of the Right 
Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1vol. 16mo., cloth, gilt back. 

Price fi.oo 

he life of Blessed Mary Ann of Jesus, 

de Parades y Flores. " The Lily of Quito." 
By Father Joseph Boero> S, J. 

Translated from the Italian by a Father of the Society of Jesus, and pub- 
lished with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia, 
1 vol. lbmo., neatly bound in cloth, gilt back, 

Priea -..- &8Q t 



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he Life of Stt» ISose of Lima. 

Edited by the Rev Frederick William Faber, D D., and published witb 
the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol., larg« 
16mo , neatly bound in clot i, gilt back. 

price— Only .-., ~- ~ - ■• ••■ ^ m 



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216 South Third Street, Philadelphia. 7 

lie L,ife of St. Cecilia, 

Tirgim and Martyr. 

Translated from the French of Father Gueranger, and published with tb« 
approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 
1 ?ol. 12mo. 

Price— In cloth $l.o( 

in cloth, gilt edge 2.01 



The above is one of the most interesting works which has been issued for some 
time from the Catholic presi in this country. The life ana martyrdom of Saint 
Cecilia, is itself, one of the most beautiful chapters in the history of the Churcn. 
The account of it by Gueranger is most touching. It combines all the spright- 
liness of romance, with tyie solid truth of history. The author is one of the 
most learned ai chseologists that has appeared in this century, and is well known 
for many learned works. In connection with the life of St. Cecilia, he gives s 
graphic account of the state of the Churcn at the time of the persecutions undei 
the Roman Emperors. There is a beautiful description of the catacombs and of 
the usages of the Christains in paying honor to the martyrs. In reading his worl 
we seem to be transferred to tneir days. The character of St. Cecilia is drawi 
out in the most vivid colors, though the account is almost entirely taken fioin 
the ancient Acts, the authenticity of which is abiy vindicated by tha learnei: 
author. He then gives an account of the Church, built at her own request 01 
the spot where she suffered. This goes over a period of over sixteen hundred 
years. It has been, du ring all that time, one of the most clearly cherished sanctu- 
aries of Rome. The incidental accounts of various matters connected with the 
history of the Saint and her Church, are themselves sufficient to give great inter- 
est to the volume, we hardly know which to admire most in this work — the 
information imparted on many most interesting topics, the healthy tone of the 
work, so well calculated to enliven faith, and cherish a devout spirit, or the 
beauty of the style of the author who has weaved the whole into so interesting 
a narrative, that no romance can vie with this truthful account of the patroness 
of song. — Baltimore Catholic Mirror. 

We are glad to see that the American public have been favored with this very 
interesting work. While the name of the author is a guarantee for historical 
accuracy, and learned research, the period of which it treats is one of great in- 
terest to the Catholic. In these pages one can learn the manners and customs of 
the early Christians, ana their sufferings, and gain no little insight into their 
daily life. The devotion to the Saints is becoming daily more practical, and we 
are glao to see revived the memory of the ancient heroes and heroines whom the 
Church has honored in a special manner. The mechanical execution of the 
American edition is very good. — Catholic, Standard. 

We cannot sufficiently admire and commend to the attention of our readers, 
young and old, this delightful work. The tenderness and exquisite refinement 
Knd purity which surround, like a veil, the character of tne lovely St. Cecili^ 
serve to throw into stronger relief the unfaltering courage by which she won tne 
erown of martyrdom. The author has made use of all the authentic and import- 
ant details connected with the life ano death of the Saint, following the most 
approved authorities. The discoveries of her tomb in the ninth and sixteenth 
seBturies form not the least interesting portion of the work, and the descriptioa 
of the churcn, which was once ner dwelling and the witness of her sufferings and 
triumphs, brings those scenes so vividly before us that Cecilia seems to belong 
as much to our own day as to the period when youpg, beautiful, wealthy and 
accomplished, the virgin bride of the noble ValeriaB laid down her life Cos thfl 
«a??yr's crowa oi faith. — 2f. Y. Tabt-el. 



8 Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 



Mr. Cunningham, of Philadelphia, has earned a new claim on our gratitu-ie Dy 
publishing the LIFE OF SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTY it. fhs 
Acts oi" her martyrdom are a monument of the wonderful ways of God, and * most 
sweet record o^ Cniistiau heroism, heavenly love, and prodigious consvdncy. 
Her ver.y name has inspired Christianity for fifteen centuries, with courag*, ano 
the noblest aspirations. The work is a translation from the French of Prosper 
Gitaranger. We have had unly time to read the title, preface, and a few oa*ge» 
bf lore going to press. But we can say this much, that it was a very nappj 
thought to undertake this translation, and we know of no other book w* should 
like to see in the hands of Catholics so much as the LIFE OF SAINT CECJLI £ 
VIRGIN AND MARTYR.— Boston Piiot. 

Mr. Peter F. Cunningham has just brought out, in very a -mirable style, the 
' Life of St. Cecilia," from the French of the celebrated bom. Gucianger. Il 
is difficult to finu a more delightful volume than this. Its subject is owe of 
thi* most attractive in all the annals of the Church ; and its auihor one of the 
most pious and gifted of modern French writers: the result is one of the most 
charming contributions ever made to Catholic literature. As intimated the 
publisher has done nis part in printing, in paper, and in binding. We n turn 
him thanks for a copy. — Philadelphia Unicerse, Oct. 6. 

This is a most interesting volume, truer than history and stranger than fic- 
tion. The author does not oonfine Himself to the detaLs of the (Saint's life and 
martyrdom, but describes, with the faithfulness and minuteness of an antiquary, 
the wonders of Imperial and Christian Rome— the catacombs, the basilicas, the 
manners of the times, the persecutions of the Christians, etc. The book is 
handsomely got up, and enriched with a portrait of fct. Cecilia seated at her 
harp. — N. Y. Met- Record. 

We have received this beautiful and very interesting life of one of the most 
beautiful Saints of the Church Tne reading public ought to be much obliged 
to the Publisher for giving them such a work. It abounds in the sublimest 
sentiments of divine love and human devotion, such as Catholics would expect 
from the life of such a Saint ; and at the same time portrays the combat of rising 
Christianity and decaying paganism in the livehst colors. Such works as this 
form the proper staple of reading for all who desire to become acquainted with 
tne period to which it refers, ami who cannot afford to purchase or peruse the 
more profound works of our Historians. — Western N. Y. Catholic. 

The name of the learned and religious Abbot of Solesmes Dom. Gueranger, 
was long since maoe familiar and pleasant to us, in the pages of Chevalier 
Bonnetty's learned periodical, the Annales de Philosophic ChrHienne, pub- 
lished in Paris. In the pages of his " Life of St. Cecilia"— which we have not 
met with in the French, — we have the same hit>h talent devoted to other than 
litui'gic themes. This is an admirable volume, well translated. The quiet 
style in which the story is told of the great honor with which Catholic ages 
have crowned St. Cecilia, is charming.— JV. Y. Freeman 's Journal. 



life of St. Agues of Rome, Virgin and Martyr. 

Published with the approbation of the Bight Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 
i vol. 18mo., neatly bound in cloth, with a beautiful steel plate Pop. 
trait of the "Youthful Martyr of Rome." 

Prioe 50 cents* 

an's Contract with God in Baptism. 

Translated fr ^m the French by Rev. J. M. Cullen, 1 vol., 18mo. 

2?rioe • 5° ee»t* 



Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 9 

lite of 81. AIoy§Iti§ &Joig^aga, 
Of the Society of Jesus. 

Fdited by Edward flealy Thompson. Published with tho approbation of thi 
i? . Rev Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol., 12mo., neat cloth, beveled, $1.50 
Cloth, Gilt, $2.00. 

4®~ This is the best life of the Saint yet published in the English laEguag* 
and should be read by both the young and old. 



T 



he liife of St. Stanislas Kostka ©f the Society 

of Jesus. 

By Edward Healy Thompson, A.M. 

Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 

lvol. 12mo. Cloth extra beveled $'< 50 

Cloth full edges 1^.00 

he Ufe of Blessed Joliei Berchmans 
of jttte Society of Jesus. 

Translated from the French. With an appendix, giving an account of 
the miracles after death, which have been approved by the Holy See. 
From the Italian of Father Borgo, S. J. Published with the approbation 
of the Bight Bev. Bishop of Philadelphia, lvol. 12mo. 

Price— In cloth $1.50 

In cloth, gilt edge : 2.00 

The Society of Jesus, laboring in all things for the " Greater glory of God," 
hss accomplished, if not more, as much, towards that pious object, as ever did 
any Institution of our holy religion. Actuated by that sublime and single 
motive, it has given the world as brilliant scholars, historians and men of 
science in all departments, as have ever yet adorned its annals. Nor is this by 
any means its greatest boast ; it is what has been achieved by the Society in the 
advancement of Catholicity and sanctity, that makes the brightest gem in its 
coronet. It is in that, that it is most precious in the sight of the angels of God ; 
it is for that its children will sing with them a new canticle on high. It has 
peopled heaven with a host of sainted choristers, many of them endowed with 
a world-wide fame for sanctity, and many, like Blessed Berchmans. 'inown to 
but few beyond the pale of her order. This saintly youth, like St. Aloysias 
and St. Stanislaus, died young, but a model of that true wisdom which nevet 
loses sight of the end for which man is created. The work before ns beauti- 
fully describes the virtues, and the exemplary life and practices of this pioua 
youth, and is richly entitled to a place in every Catholic library.— Catholic 
Mirror. 

Mr. P. F. Cunningham, of Philadelphia, may well rejoice, in his Catholic 
heart, for having given us this work, the perusal of which must needs be the 
source cf immense good. No be .ter work can be placed in the hands of Re- 
ligious novices Perhaps no other book has fired those privileged souls with 
more fervid aspirations towards attaining the perfection proper of their reli- 
gions professions. A perfect pattern is placed before them, and whilst tha 
i«art s drawn towards it with admiring love, the reader eann< t allege anp 
honest c?nse whereby to excuse himself from following the noble example 
placed before him. Blessed Berchmans teaches, by his own life, that perfec- 
tion is to be attained in the fa thfnl and conscientious discharge of the duties of 
one's daily life, whatever its circumstances may be. An excellent, mosf ex- 
sellout 1 ook this will also prove for 6odalists '—Boston Pilot 



10 Published by Peter F. Caiuingliam, 



This is the fullest and best lift published of this remarkable servari cf God 
^ohn Berchinaus lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He died 
at Rome, ; .n his twenty-third year — a model of purity and devotion. V/e can- 
sot bettei notice this volume than by copying the opening words of the Brief of 
his Beatification, pronounced by the Holy Father, last year: 

"As youth is the foundation of manhood, and men do not readily in after life 
turn fiom the path they have trod from earliest years ; that there be no excuse 
on plea of age or strength, for swerving from tho ways of virtue, the All-wisa 
Providence has ordered it that there should bloom, from time to time, in the 
Church, on3 and another youth eminent for sanctity, realizing the eulogium: 
' Made perfect in a short space, be fulfilled a long time.' " 

As such an one, the life of Blessed John Berchmans commends itself to the 
study especially of pious youth.— N. Y. Freeman's Journal. 

The Life of St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor, and 

Doctor of the Church. 

By P. E. Moriarty, D.D.,- Ex- Assistant General, O. S. A. 
Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadel- 
phia. 1 vol. 12rno. 

Cloth, extra beveled, and gilt centre *' & ' 

Cloth, gilt edge - - 00 

be Life of St. Charles Borromeo. 

By Edward Healey Thompson. 
Published with the approbation of the Eight Kev. Bishop of 
Philadelphia, lvol. 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled < • *l £0 

" gilt edge .... 2 OC 



T 



T 



he Sodalist's Friend. A Beautiful Collec- 
tion of Meditai ions and Prayers. 

Compiled and translated from approved sources, for the use of members 
and leaders of confraternities, lvol. ISmo., neatly bound. 

Price-In cloth ^ C fi nt nn 

Roan embossed jpi.uu 

Embossed gilt 1-jjO 

Full gilt edges and sides 2.00 

Turkey, superior extra 3.00 

he Month of fee §aered Meart. 

Arranged for each day of the month of June. Containing also the Arch 
Confraternity of Sacred Heart, and Father Borgo's Novena to ths Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. With the appiobation of the Right Eev. Bishop cj 
Philadelphia. 1 neat vol. 24m' Cloth, gilt back. 

Prioe - .50 cent* 



216 South Third Street, Philadelphia. 11 



T 



lie Month of St. Joseph. 

Arranged for each day of the month of March. Frcm the French, of tha 
Rev. Father Huguet, of the "Society of St. Mary." Published with tka 
approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 neat vol. 
18mo. Cloth, gilt back. 

Price 50 cents. 

An attentive perusal ( f this little work will prove, with a sincere utterance of 
the prayers contained therein, a powerful means to reform one's life. Let ua 
secure the friendsHp and intercession of St. Joseph. He is the foster-father of 
oar Saviour. He can say a good word for us, indeed. 0, the beauty of Catholic 
devotions! how its practices, when in direct connection with the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ, fill the soul with happiness and hope! — Boston Pilot. 

This will be found to be an interesting book to all the children of Mary, and 
the lovers of her pure, saintly, and glorious spouse, St. Joseph. It is a good 
companion to the lovely "Mouth of May." — New York Tablet. 

JL lie Little O^ees. 

Translated from the French by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Contain- 
ing the Little Offices of the Sacred Heart, Holy Ghost, Immaculate Con- 
ception, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, Most Holy Heart of Mary, Holy 
Angel Guardian, St. Joseph, St. Louis de Gonzaga, St. Stanislaus, St 
Jude, Apostle. To which is added a Devout Method of Hearing Mass. 
Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 
1 vol. 18mo. Neatly bound. 

Price 50 cents. 

JL lie Religious Soul Elevated to Perfection. 
toy the Exercises of an Interior Life. 

From the French of the Abbe Baudrand, author of "The Elevation of 
Soul." 1 vol. ISnio. 

Price 60 cents. 

fLia Mere de Dieu. 

A beautiful and very edifying work on the Glories and Virtues of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God ; from the Italian of Father Alphonse 
Capecelatro, of the Oratory of Naples, with an Introductory Letter of 
Father Gratry, of the Paris Oratory. Published with the approbation of 
the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 neat vol. 18mo. Cloth. 

Price 50 cents. 

JL he Roman Catacombs ; or, Some acco^iisl 

of the Rnrial Places of the Early Chris- 
tians in Home. 

By Rev. J. Spencer Northcoate, M. A , wiih Maps and various Illustra- 
tions. Published with the approbation of the Right Rev Bishop nf Phila- 
delphia. 
1 vol., 16mo., neatly bound in cloth, giK back. 

Price 31.00 



12 Published hy Peter F. Cunningham, 

JL 



c 



etters Addressed to a Protestant Friend. 

By a Catholic Priest. With a Preface by the Right Rev. Bishop Becker 
1 vol. 12mo. Cloth extra beveled -$!•* 

harity and Truth; or, Catholics not un- 
charitable in saying that None are 

Saved ont of the Catholic Church. 

By the Rev. Edward Hawarden. 

Published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 
i toI. 12mo. 

Price— Neatly bound ia cloth... $1.25 

In this book, the learned and earnest author discusses a question of vital im« 
portance to all, viz.: Is there salvation out of the Catholic Communion? At 
the present moment, when the strongest proof of Christianity, in the popular 
opinion, is a belief that every road leads to heaven, and that every man who 
lives a moral life is sure to be saved, the very title of this book will grate 
harshly on many ears. To such we Wjuld say — Read the work, and learn that 
" a charitable judgment may be very unfavorable, and a favorable judgment 
may he very uncharitable " "Charity and Truth" is the work of one of the 
ablest controversialists and most learned theologians of the Catholic Church in 
England. The method adopted in " Charity and Truth" is the catechetical, and 
to help the memory the questions are set in large characters at the top of each 
page. In the preface, the Reverend reviewer takes up and disposes of six 
vulgar errors, — 1st. That it is charity to suppose all men saved whose life is 
morally honest. 2d. That the infinite goodness of God will not suffer the 
greater part of mankind to perish. 3d. That it is charity to believe the Jews 
and Turks are saved. 4th. That if I judge more favorably of the salvation of 
another man than he does of mine, I am the more charitable of the two. 5th. 
That, setting all other considerations apart, if Protestants judge more favor- 
ably of the salvation of Catholics than Catholics do of theirs, Protestants are 
on the more charitable side. 6th. That he is uncharitable whoever supposes 
that none are saved in any other religion unless they are excused by invinci- 
ble ignorance. —Met. Record. 

We owe Mr. Cunningham an apology for not having noticed this work ere 
this ; and we should have done it more readily, as we hail with utmost pleasure 
the republication of one of those works written by the uncompromising cham- 
pions of the Church during the hottest days of persecution and Catholic disa- 
bilities in England. We have often wished that some of the learned professors 
of the illustrious College of Georgetown would select from among the numerous 
collection they have of books written by English missionaries during the first 
two centuries of persecution in England, some such work as "Charity and 
Truth," and republish them in this country. These works will not please, of 
course, our milk and water Catholics. But, after all, they are the real kind of 
works we need. It is high time that we should take the aggressive. We Lave 
put up long enough with Protestant attacks. We owe nothing to Protestant 
We have allowed'them to say all kind of things to us. We have received wiib 
thanks the benign condescension with which they grant us the merit of then- 
being some good people among the Catholics, and chat some bishops and prices 
are clever, in spite of their being Catholics. We have bowed so low as to kiss 
the right hand that has patted us on the head, wh le the left was lifting its 
thumb to the nose of the smiling but double-hearted ca* esser. It is high time, we 
say, that we should do away with this sycophancy. It is high time that war 
was carried to the heart of the enemy's country. Hence we are thankful to tb.<? 
American editor of this work. Let Catholics buy it, read it, and then give It 
to thair Protestant acquaintances.— Boston Pilot. 



CAT HOLIC T ALES. 

eech BlulF. A Tale of the South Before th« 
War. 

By Fannie Warner. 

1 vol. 12mo. Cloth extra beveled $1.50 

Cloth gilt edge „. S^.OC 

erncliflfe. 

A Catholic Tale of greet merit 1 volume h'mo. 

Price — CI Ah, extra beveled $1 % 

Cloth, gilt edges 2 00 

ae Hf on targes Legacy. 

A Charming Catholic Tale, by Florence McCoomb, (Miss Meline, of Washing 
tea,) 1 volume, small 12nu . 

Price— Cloth, extia beveled $7.00 

Cloth, gilt 1.25 

race Morton ; or, The Inheritance. 

A new and beautiful Catholic tale, written by Miss Meauey of Philadelphia 
1 vol., large ISmo., neatly bound in cloth. 

Price $1.00 

This is a pleasing story, instructive as well as amusing, and worth an espe 
cial place in the library of youthful Catholics. It depicts with rare skill the 
trials and sacrifices which attend the profession of the true Faith, and wliich 
are so often exacted of us by the fostering solicitude of our Mother the Church. 
— Catholic Mirror. 

A chastely written Catholic tale of American life, which is most pleasantly 
narrated ; and conveys much that is instructive and elevating. — Irish American 



F 



Ti 



(m 



he K.nout$ a Tale of Poland. 

Translated from the French by Mrs. J. Sadlier. 

1 vol., large 18mo., neatly buund in cloth, gilt back, with frontispiece. 
Price $i.oo 

aura and Anna 5 or, The Effect of Faith on 

the Character. 

A beautiful tale, translated from the French by a young lady, a Graduate 

of St. Joseph's, Emmittsburg. 

1 vol. 18mo., neatly bound in cloth. 

Price 60 cents 

he Confe§sor§ of Connaught ; or, The Ten- 
ants of a Lord Bishop. 

A tale of Evictions in Ireland. By Miss Meaney, author of " Grace Mor- 
ton." 
Small 12mo., cloth. 

Price $1.00 

Re*d this bvuk and you will have a feeling knowledge of the sufferings ol 
*vlt breti ven in the Isle of Sainte. — Baton Pilot. 
This is a story of Irish evictions, founded apon well-known facts. The d* 



L, 



T 



14 Published by Peter F. Cunningham, 

plorable infatuation of Lord Plunkett, Potestant Bishop of Tuam and landlcrd 
ef a great portion of the town of Partry and its vicinity, is perhaps still frfc3.l1 
in the memory of our readers. 

That a man not deficient in intellectual attainments, and really anxious tc 
stand well with his tenantry, should have turned a deaf ear to all generoua 
remonstrances, and should have persisted in believing that in this nineteenth 
century the dispossession of a multitude of helpless tenants at will in the midsl 
of winter, was on the whole a good expedient for making the evictor's " re- 
ligion popular among the victims," is one of the most impressive illustration* 
we have ever met with of 'the incurableness of judicial blindness, when con- 
tracted in opposing the Catholic Church. 

This is the reflection forced upon the reader of the " Confessors of Connaught,' 
ft tale put together with remarkable skill. — Tablet. 

m 

-Lhe Young Catholic's Library. 

In neat ISmo vols., cloth. 12 vols., $6.00, or 50 cents each. 

The following volumes are now ready. 

THE YOUNG CATHOLIC'S LIBRARY— First Series. 

1. Cottage Evening Tales for Young People. Six Cnarming Talcs; 
one for each day of the week. 1 vol. 18mo. Neat Cloth, £0 cts. 

2. Children of the Valley ; or, The Ghost of the Ruins. A beautiful 
Catholic Tale, from the French. 1 vol. 18mo Neat Cloth, 50 cts. 

3. May Carleton's Story ; or. The Catholic Maiden's Cross. And. The 
Miller's Daughter; or. The Charms of Yirtue. Two lovely Tales in 1 
vol. 18mo. Neat Cloth, 50<cts. 

4. Philip Hartley ; or, A Boy's Trials and Triumphs. A Tale by the 
author of "Grace Morton," etc. 1 vol ISmo. Neat Cloth, 50 cts. 

5. Count Leslie; or, The Triumph of Filial Piety. A Catholic Tale of 
great interest, lvol. 18mo. Neat Cloth. 50 cts. 

6. A Father's Tales, of the French Revolution. Delightful Stories for 
Catholic Youth. First series, lvol. 18mo. Neat Cloth. 50 cts. 

7. IZalph Berrien, and other Tales of the French Revolution. Second 
series. 1 vol. 18mo 50 cts. 

8. Silver Grange. A charming American Catholic Tale. And, Phillip- 
pine: or, The Captive Bride. Both in 1 vol. 18mo. 50 cts. 

9. Helena Butler, a Story of the Rosary. 1 vol. 18mo. 50 cts. 

10. Charles and Frederick. A beautiful Story, by Rev. John P 
Donnellon. 1 vol. ISmo. 50 cts. 

11. The Beatiforts, a Story of the Allegbanies. 1 vol. 18m«. 50 cts. 

12. Lauretta and the Fables. A charming little Book for Young 
People. 1 vol. ISmo. 50 cts. 

THE YOUNG CATHOLIC'S LIBRARY— Second Series. 

/. Conrad and Gertrude, the Little Wanderers. A lovely Swiss 
Tale. 1 vol.. 18mo. 50 cts. 

2. Three Petitions, a Tale of Poland. 1 vol., 18mo. 50 cts. 

3. Alice ; or, The Rose of the Black Forest A German Story. 1 vol., 
18mo. 50 cts. 

4. Caroline; or. Self-Conquest. 1 vol.. 18mo 50 cts. 

5. Tales of the Commandments. 1 vol.. ISmo. 50 cts. 

6'. The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. 1 vol, 18mo. 50 cts. 

7. Elinor Johnson. Founded on Facts, and a beautiful Cathohe 
Tale. 1 vol., 18mo. Cloth. 50 cts. 

8. The Queen's Daughter; or, The Orphan of La Granga. 1 voS., 
ISmo. 50 cts. . " 

9. Hetty Homer ; or, Tried but True. A charming Tale, by Fanme 
Warner. 50 cts. ^ „ . L 

10. T!t< Beverly Familu. P>v Hon. Jos. R. Chandler. oO cts. 

11. Aunt Fanny's Present; or, Child's Book of Fairy Tales. 50 eta 

12. Woodland Cottage, and other Tales. 50 cts. 



216 South Third Street, Philadelphia, 15 
Uineasj or, Rome under Nero, 

By J .M. Villeiranche. 

lrol. 12mo. Cloth. Extra beveled „ $1.50 

Gilt edge $2.00 

Tliis charming story of the time of Nero— the burning of Home under that 
tyrant, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the most cruel persecution of the 
I hiistians, is of that class of beautiful Christian novels, of which Fabiola was 
the first, and is considered one of the best yet written. 



A 



lphonso; or, the Triumph of Religion. 

1 vol. small 12 mo. neat cloth. Price , $1.00 

We have the pleasure to announce another of Mr. Cunningham's works, Al- 
phonso, or the Triumph of Religion. It contains everything calculated 10 instruct 
a ad edify at the same time, and we think it a work that will be read with 
g-eat pleasure by all our readers. — Spare Hours. 

The scenes of this booh are laid in France, but the moral applies witk equal 
force to our own country. The work is intended to show the evil effects of an 
irreligious education, and does so with great force and effect. The tale is from 
the pen of a gifted Irish lady, and well worth reading. Those who are sluggish 
in their response to our Most Rev. Archbishop's recent call in behalf of an In- 
dustrial School, should take a lesson from this valuable little book. --Baltimore 
Catholic Mirror. 



A 



History of England, 

For The Young. 



Compiled by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesux, for the use of theh 
schools in England, and republished for the use of the Catholic Schools in 
the United States. 

1 vol. 12 mo 80 cts 

This is an admirable compendium of English history, deserving a place in all 
our schools. It is well arranged for a class book, having genealogical tables, a 
good index, and questions for each chapter.— Catholic Mirror. 

This is a most valuable little book, giving just sufficient-, information to interest 
and attract the young without wearying them with superabundance of dates which 
they rarelv remember, and dry statistics which they never read unless compelled 
to d'o so, (a ino>t injudicious process,) while by means of excellent genealogical 
and chronological tables, it furnishes to those disposed to seek it, ample instruc- 
tion and it will most probably inspire in the mind of an intelligent child, the 
wish to read more extended works. We iaxe pleasure in commencing thii 

' flistary of England" to the attention of all those interested in providing agree- 
.lie means of improvement to children.— N Y. Tablet. 

Mr. Peter F. Cunningham, 216 South Third street, has published a history of 
England, for the young written by a religiouse. It is properly a narrative his- 
tory, and is in such a style as is most calculated to attract and retain the atten- 
tion' of the youthful mind. I* supplies a want which has never befcre been 

urgently met, ami which has long been needed in our schools. Lingard's and 
Macauley's histories are well adapted to more advanced pupils, but are not suitable 

or beginners. This history has already been introduced into some of our Catholic 

chools, and it is the design to make it a text book foi all jf them — Philadelphia 

Universe. 



16 Published by Peier F. Cunn'ngham. 

PRAYER BOOKS. 

FLOWER GARDEN. 

An admirable small Prayer Book. Contains Morning and Evening 
Prayers, Mass Prayers. Ordinary of the Mass, (in Latin and English,) 
Vespers, Forty Hours Devotion, Stations of the Cross, and a great vas 
riety of otherpractical devotions, all together forming the most com- 
plete small Prayer Book yet printed. 1 vol., 32mo. 

No. 1, Neat cloth, variety of nice bright colors JO 45 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edge SO 

3, " " " and clasp loo 

4, " full gilt edges and sides l 00 

5, " " •■ '■ and clasp 125 

FLOWER GARDEN, 32mo., fine edition, printed on the finest quality 

of paper, and made up in the neatest and very best manner : 
No. 6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges stiff or flexible £2 50 

7, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or piain sides, red 

or gilt edges, with clasp 2 75 

8, Turkey, super extra, rims and clasp 4 00 

9, Calf, extra, stiff or flexible, very neat 2 75 

10, " '■« withclasp. 3 00 

11, " '* rims and clasp 4 50 

12, Velvet, full ornaments, rims, clasps and ovals... 6 00 

LITTLE FLOWER GARDEN. 

A beautiful miniature Prayer Book. 4Smo. Containing a selection 
of practical devotions, and made up in a variety of beautiful styles 
of binding, 

No. 1, Neat cloth, variety of plain and bright colors. ..$0 20 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edges 40 

3, " full gilt edges and sides 50 

4, '* tucks, very neat ..0 60 

5, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt edges 1 50 

6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, with 

fine gilt clasp 1 75 

7, Turkey, super extra, rims and clasp 2 50 

8, Calf, extra red or gilt edges, very neat 1 75 

9, " " " " withclasp 2(0 

10, '* " rims and clasp 3 00 

DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR CATHOLICS. 

An admirable small Prayer Book. 32m o., with very large type, 
(English,) good for thesliort-sighted, and for all who like to read with 
ease, wiihout the necessity of using glasses. 

No. 1, Neat cloth, variety of nice bright colors $0 45 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edge 80 

3, " " " and clasp 100 

4, " full gilt edges and sides , 1 0G 

5, " " " " andclasp ..125 

6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or g'ilt edges, stiff or flexible 2 50 

7, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides, red 

or gilt eciges, with clasp 2 75 

8, Turkey, super extra rims and clasp 4 00 

9, Calf, extra, stiff' or flexible, very neat 2 75 

10, " " " withclasp 3 00 

11, " " " rims and clasp 4 50 

12, Velvet, full ornaments, rims, clasps and ovals... 6 09 






216 South Third Street, Philadelphia. 17 

MANUAL OF DEVOTION. 

An excellent 32mo. Prayer Book, with illustrations of the Mass. 
No. 1, Neat cloth, a variety of plain and bright colors. SO 30 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edges f>0 

3, " ' " and clasp 80 

4, " full gilt edges and sides 80 

5, " '• •' " andclasp 100 

6, Turkey, super extra, full gilt or plain sides 2 50 

7, " ' " rims and clasp 3 £0 

8, Calf, extra, stiff or flexible, bound very neat 2 75 

9, " " ■' andclasp. 3(0 

10, " rims and clasp 4 00 

DAILY EXERCISE. 

A beautiful miniature Prayer Book. 48mo., with illustrations of the 
Mass. 

No. 1, Neat cloth a variety of choice colors $0 TO 

2, Roan, embossed, gilt edge o 40 

3, " full gilt edge and sides 50 

4, " tucks, very neat 60 

5, Turkey, super extra 1 50 

6, •' " tucks 1 50 

7, " " rims and clasp 2 50 

8, Calf, extra 1 75 

9, " with clasp 2(0 

10, " rims and clasp 3 00 

The Hymn Book. 

The Hymn-Book— 180ih thousand— the most popular little Hymn B«£K>k 
ever published Contains, also, Prayers for the Mass, Prayers tor Con- 
fession and Communion, and Serving of Mass. l3eentseaoh,or $10 per 
hundred ; cloth, 20 cents, or $1 80 per dozen. 

The Gospels. 

For Sundays and Principal Festivals during the year, together with 
the Four Gospels of the Passion for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. 
1 vol. o2mo. Paper cover 10 cts., or per dozen, $L 00. 

Confirmation and Communion Certificates. 

The subscriber has had prepared very beautiful certificates of Confir- 
mation an I First Communion giving also exterior and interior views 
of the Cathedral of Philadelphia. These are the most beautiful certitt- 
cates ever published in this country, and are sold at low rates to the 
Reverend Clergy and others who buy in quantity. $3 00 per hundred. 

Angels' Sodality. 

Manual of the Holy Angels Sodality. Price, in cloth, flexible, $12 50 
per hundred, or $1 50 per dozen 

Diplomas for Membership of the Angels' Sodality. Beautiful design 
$1 i per dozen 

Blessed Virgin's Sodality Diploma. 

A Very Beautiful Diploma for Members of the Modality of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary size of plate 15x:0, has just been prepared by the um'er* 
gjgned Orders respectfully solicited. The name of the Chure-n and 
title of the Sodality inserted to ord r. 

Catechisms. 

Butler's large and small Catechisms. The general Catechism of the 
Nalional Council. Tuberville s Catechism, Dr. Doyle's Catechisma, 
Fleury s Catechism and The Catholic Christian Instructed Supplied 
Wholesale and Retail. And many other Catholic Doctrinal Works. 
Orders respectfully solicited. 

PETEB F. CUNNINGHAM, 

Publisher, 216 & Third St., PhUada. 



18 Published by Peter F. Cunningham. 

.Meditations on the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

By the Abbe Edward Barthe. Published with the approbation of the 

Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia. 1 vol., 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 00 

MESSENGER SERIES. 

[Attention is respectfully called to this series of beautiful works, originally 
prepared for the Messenger of the Sacred Heart, and now offered to the public 
in handsome 12mo vols. We recommend every Catholic family to procura 
the "Messenger Series."] 

L 

2. Oimon Peter and Simon Magus. 

3. JL he Acts of the Early Martyrs 

T 

4. I he Acts of the Early Martyrs. 

5. JL he Acts of the Early Martyrs. C In Press.] 

By the Rev. J. A. M. Fastre, Third Series, 1 vol., 12mo. 

,<Jloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 00 



1. I ^eandro ; or, The Sign of the Cross 

A beautiful Catholic Tale. 1 vol.. 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 UC 



A Legend of the early days of Christianity in Rome. B}' Rev. John 

Joseph Franco, S. J. "l vol., 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 UO 



By the Rev. J. A. M. Fastre, S. J. First serie*. 1 vol., 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt. 2 00 



By the Rev. J. A M. Fastre, S. J. Second SeHes. * vol., 12mo. 

Cloth, extra beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt 2 0t> 



Mari 



D 



arion Howard; or, Trials and Triumphs. 

1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, extra beveled $2 00 

Cloth, gilt edge 2 50 

ivine Life of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Being wn abridgment of the "Mystical Ci^y of God" 

By Ven. Mary of Jesus of Aereda. 

J vol. 12mo. Cloth, exira beveled $1 50 

Cloth, gilt edge ?. W> 



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